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PIOUS CHRISTIAN'S 



FAITH AND HOPE. 



FROM THE HAND OF 



JOHN WHITEHEAD. 



Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my 
voice and open the door, I will come in to him. Rev. 
Try the spirits whether they are of (J od. 
Every spirit that confesseth not, that Jesus Christ is 
come in the flesh, is nut of God. And this is that spirit of 
Antichrist. 1 Kp. John. 



NEW- YORK : 

JOHN S. TAYLOR, 

143 NASSAU-STREET. 




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PIOUS CHRISTIAN'S 



FAITH AND HOPE. 



FROM THE HAM. OY 



JOHN W II I TEHEAD 



ru— •• 



These things hast thou dorse, and I kept silence ; thou though-test 
Uiat I was altogether such a one as thyself: but 1 will reprove thee, 
and set themin order before thine eyes. 

Now consider this, ye : hat forget (iod, lest I tear you in pieces, and 
there be none to deliver. Ps. 1, 21, 22. 



<* NEW-YORSj 
9 JOHNS. TAYLOR, 

143 NASSAU-STREET. 

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-Entered According to Act ot Congress, in the year 1850, by 

JOHN WHITEHEAD, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District 
of New-York. 



H. LUDWIG AND CO., PRINTERS, 

53 Vesey-Street, New- York. 






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PREFACE 



OF THE PIOUS CHRISTIANS. 

The pious Christians are those who profess to believe and 
follow the true doctrine of God. 

There are two doctrines, one by which men hope to go to 
heaven, that is, to be blessed, by then- doing something ; th<. j 
other, according to which they profess they hope to go there 
wholly by the grace, mercy, and power of God. The first is 
the natural doctrine of all mankind — the Sea, which is the 
world ; the latter is the doctrine of truth, and is the pro- 
fessed doctrine of the pious Christians, the Earth. The Earth 
signifies those who have the oracles of God, who profess to 
believe in God, who are the vineyard of the Lord, cultivated 
by Him, watered by Him with rain from heaven. The Sea 
signifies all the various nations of men who follow all sorts 
of blind and cruel superstitions, many of whom say there is 
no God, and these all have one common doctrine, the natural 
doctrine of man, viz., to obtain blessing by the work and 
power of man, not to receive it from God, that is, not to be- 
lieve ! 

The Earth, the religious world, has always been corrupt 
in all ages, for earthly man is corrupt, but there has been a 
great difference in different ages among the people profess- 
ing to worship and obey God and to trust in His salvation. 
At one time they have been brought very low, at another 
time they have been more faithful and obedient. When the 
Earth has received and followed the truth which God has 
given it, it has been blessed according to its works ; but 
when the Earth, as in the present day, rejecteth the truth 
and bringeth forth briars and thorns, then they, the religious 



IV PREFACE. 

world of religious professors, the Earth, is rejected cf God, 
and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. 

God trieth all them that dwell upon the Earth, the reli- 
gious professors who profess to worship Him, whether they 
are liars or whether they are of the truth. In these days 
they that dwell upon the earth, the religious world, have 
been tried ; it has been an hour of temptation. Satan lias 
poured a flood out of his mouth to sweep away all truth 
from the Earth, and the Earth, the great multitude of reli- 
gious professors, have greedily swallowed it up, for they 
were not of the truth, they trusted not in God to keep them, 
but they trusted in themselves, and they have not been 
kept. They endured not to the end but departed from the 
truth, falling from it like stars falling from heaven, departing 
after strange gods, following lies, and new and strange doc- 
trines. The Earth, the religious professors, in this day, is 
utterly fallen away. "Now in this day the word which God 
spake by His prophets is fulfilled : " The earth is dissolved," 
become loose and putrid. " It is turned upside down." The 
cities of them that feared God are wasted, without inhabi- 
tant, and the houses without man ! The Earth is utterly 
desolate and few men left, and those few in a low and 
wretched state. The heathen have come into God's inherit- 
ance, His holy temple they have defiled, they have laid Je- 
rusalem in heaps. They have slain His servants, His two 
witnesses, the law which testifies of righteousness, that it 
must be done, and the gospel which testifies righteousness 
that Christ does it, and the dead bodies of His servants, the 
dead letter contained in Bibles they scatter abroad, and give 
them to be meat to the beasts, cramming them down the 
throats of the heathen and the ungodly. The enemy hath 
triumphed and utterly broken down the hedges of the vine- 
yard, the wild boar out cf the wood hath devoured it, all 
that pass by the way do pluck it. Jerusalem, the holy city 
of the saints of God is in desolation and heaps, trodden un- 
der foot of the Gentiles. The Lord hath removed men far 
away, his people, the members of Christ His Son, are gone 
into captivity, worshipping the strange gods of a strange 
people, who do not belong to God, but who have taken the 
houses of God into their possession, pretending to be the 
true worshippers of God. Such, s the condition of the 
Earth of which the prophet Isaiah prophesied. It is now 
the time of the consummation of a long desolation ; it is 
now the time of the great forsaking, the great falling awav, 
when the scales were to fall from the eyes of the lost sheep 



PREFACE. V 

of the house of Israel, and his blindness to the love and 
glory of God by His Christ was to cease, for that blindness 
and hardness of heart was to continue until this time of this 
great falling away and forsaking in the Earth. 

Such k now the condition of the Earth. Yet in the Earth, 
among the pious Christian?, as God has declared, there is a 
tenth which shall be saved. It is as when an oak or a teel 
tree is dead and withered, and all its leaves are fallen, yet 
there is some green, some life in it. So there is a holy seed 
in the earth, the substance thereof, and while the greater 
number of the Earth will remain firm in their strong delu- 
sions and become more obstinate than ever in their idolatry 
and deceit, these shall return to the Lord their God from 
whom they have departed Tims it is with the Earth : the 
pious Christians, professors of the heavenly truth, whom God 
had highly favoured and watered with His word, who have 
departed from the truth, turning it upside down, teaching the 
very reverse of the truth and calling it the truth, yet in it 
there is a tenth who shall return to God, and when it re- 
turns shall be saved. But with the Sea, with those who 
have never professed to worship God only, and to trust in 
Ins power and grace only — with the Sea, who have not 
known nor professed in falsehood and deceit the doctrine of 
God, not saying they trusted in God only while their trust 
was in man only — with these it will fare better than with 
the Earth. God will have great mercy upon a great num- 
ber of them, more by far than a tenth of them shall be 
turned unto God and be filled with everlasting joy and glad- 
ness, for "an abundance of the sea shall be converted unto 
God," as God hath spoken by His prophets who spake of 
this time. 

Thus it is in this day with the Earth, the religious world. 
God hath made the Earth empty, and made it waste, and 
turned it upside down, and scattered abroad the inhabitants 
thereof. The Earth (the religious world of the only pious, 
the only evangelical Christians, the good men, the regenerate 
men as they call themselves, who only are going to be saved, 
and all other men, not regenerate men like them, are sure, 
as they teach, to be damned) — these, the Earth in this day, 
are utterly emptied and spoiled. Fear, and the pit, and the 
snare is upon them, God hath rained snares upon them, and 
they are snared in their own wisdom and in the work of 
their own hand, the Earth mourneth and fadeth away, the 
haughty people of the Earth do languish. The Earth also 
is denied under the inhabitants thereof, because they, the 
1* 



VI PREFACE. 

pious Christians, pretending to receive and love the truth, 
have cast it down and trampled it under foot, for they have 
transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the 
everlasting covenant ! Therefore ths curse hath devoured 
the Earth, and the y that dwell therein are desolate, there- 
fore the inhabitants of the Earth are burned and few men 
left. All this, and more, God hath spoken and revealed be- 
fore of the religious world, the Earth of this day and time, 
who are the pious evangelical Christians. 

Hone but the pious Christians, the Earth of this day, could 
have broken the everlasting covenant of righteousness and 
blessing by Jesus Christ, for none but these have had it to 
break, and professed to know and keep it. The Jews have 
not had it to break, for their eyes have been blinded until 
this day. The Catholics have not broken it, for they are of 
the Sea, they openly follow the doctrine of man, they never 
professed to.be saved by grace only, by the everlasting 
covenant, and not by works of man at all, as the pious 
Christi a n? profess . 

How the pious Christians have done all this, killing the 
two witnesses of God, the ordinance and the everlasting 
covenant, overthrowing and slaying both the law and the 
gospel, is shown in the pages following of this book, in which 
their faith and their hope is laid open and exhibited what it 
is. The Earth, the pious Christians of this day, are the na- 
tions and people who have been heretofore more favoured of 
God than any other people and nation of Christendom. To 
them God gave a knowledge of His truth and gospel which 
He gave not to any other people of Christendom, and they 
have totally fallen away from the truth, yet with such deceit 
and guile as to appear and pretend still to follow zealously 
and to love devotedly the very truth which they have over- 
thrown, rejected, denied, and killed. They are the same 
deceiving and deceitful generation as the Pharisees, a gene- 
ration which has not passed away. They also, as these, 
pretended to love most wonderfully, and to be most zealous 
for the law of God, at the very time they rejected and killed 
Him whom God had sent, who came to fulfil the righteous- 
ness of the law, and to do the will of God for His people 
who received him ! So the pious Christians pretend won- 
derfully to love the Lord Jesus Christ, calling him " Dear 
Jesus," " Sweet Jesus," " Dear Redeemer," while they totally 
deny, reject and slay Ms doctrine, truth and word, denying 
Him and crucifying Him afresh ! They hail Him as Master, 
pretend to love and follow him, and kiss Him while they be- 



PREFACE. \U 

tray Him, for they are the Son of Perdition who it was 
foretold should come. They are those who were once en- 
lightened and had tasted of the heavenly gift and have 
fallen away, subverting and overthrowing the everlasting 
covenant, denying the grace and everlasting love and good 
pleasure of God, denying the will and power and glory of 
God in His creation of His people on whom he is pleased 
to have mercy, and setting up man, even sinful man, and 
his will, and his power, and his sacrifice and oblation of per- 
sonal piety instead of Christ, the sacrifice and oblation 
whom they have crucified afresh, casting Him down from 
Iris excellency and glory. 

The pious Christians of this day, as the Pharisees were in 
their day, are the professors of the true doctrine of God, all 
the rest of the world in this, as in that day, openly avowing 
the doctrine of the Sea, and denying the truth, the salvation 
of God. They profess in words and outward show to re- 
ceive the very truth, while they reject and overthrow it. 
They belong not to the great body of Christians who all set 
up man to save, and deny the doctrine of Christ, they pro- 
fess and appear to contend for the truth, the doctrine of the 
grace of God, winch the others deny, and to have no trust in 
man S They confidently proclaim that the other Christians 
throughout the world who follow the doctrine of the Sea, 
the doctrine of the works of man, are not real Christian-, 
and their doctrine only is vital, experimental religion, and 
evangelical Christianity. The doctrine of their Hps, their 
songs, then* professions and creeds is the form and letter of 
truth, it is going to heaven by the grace of God only, but 
their real doctrine is the old doctrine of the Sea, the natu- 
ral doctrine of the world, viz., going to heaven by the doing 
and power of man. 

Thus hi words and professions they appear before the 
world as the Pharisees did, the only pure, true, rigid and 
exact followers of the truth ; like them, they are austere 
men, who say and do not, and, like them, they have crucified 
afresh the Lord of Glory, as the examination of their doc- 
trines in the following pages will plainly show to all who 
have understanding. 



CHAPTER FIRST. 

THE DOCTRINE OF THE PIOUS CHRISTIANS, THAT IF YOU ARE 
TRULY AND SINCERELY" PIOUS, YOU WILL BE SAVED, IS DECEIV- 
ING MEN. 

The substance ef the Pious Christians doctrine in this day 

is, that if you are truly and sincerely pious, you will go to 
heaven ! They teach confidently that a man will be saved 
provided he does something, that is, if he performs all the re- 
quired conditions and is truly pious. 

Wha.t is the something they teach to do, and who has given 
it them to do ? They have established and given it them- 
selves to do, for God has not given it to do. God has indeed 
given men something to do ; He has given and commanded 
His law of righteousness, to do no evil, that is the only some- 
thing men have to do. But what they give to do is not this 
law of God, even all the good and righteous actions towards 
all n>en continually which it commands, they have cast aside 
what God has given men to do, and have given themselves 
something else to do ! Wfeat they have given themselves to 
do, instead of doing righteousness at all times, is a vague 
generality, namely "to be very pious." This signifies what- 
ever they ma}' please to make it according to occasion. i*t 
one time to be very pious is to go regularly to church on Sun- 
days ; at another time it is zealously to support Missionary, 
Bible, Temperance, and other Societies ; and then at another 
time, if necessary, they assert it signifies doing much more, 
doing a great deal of good ! Thus in fact it is any tiling and 
every thing, and what they please to make it to be. This is 
what they hope in and what they have given themselves to 
do in order to go to heaven, viz : " to be very pious." A very 
small quantity of it is enough to be saved, it is being "hope- 
fully pious !" And all this is instead of the righteousness of 
the law even the deeds of the law, which are good and right- 
eous actions to ail men. This is the something to do in order 
to go to heaven which they have set up ; a something to do, 
but something infinitely less than the righteousness of the 



10 the nous christian's 

law, all good deeds towards all men, the whole duty of man. 
which God commands men to do. They say this is the grace of 
God, this is the gospel, and they are not under the law, they 
are under grace, and grace is something to do ! 

So then their gospel is this, namely, that man has to do 
and must do something in order to be saved, but not all the 
righteousness of the law, that is too much. He has therefore 
to do a little something less, he must do good, that is, be very 
pious, and then provided he is very pious, God will save him 
by His grace. Astonishing delusion and wickedness ! Thus 
God has, they say, mixed up His grace with men's doing a 
little something, a little piety, whereas as they confess He 
has mixed up no grace whatever with his doing a great deal, 
even all the righteous works of the law, ail the duty of man ! 
And thus according to their scheme, they who do a great deal, 
obeying the law, will not be saved by grace, there is no grace 
for them ; but they who do very little which amounts to no- 
thing, but who are very pious, will be saved ! So wonderful 
is man's doing when it is called being pious, that it is superior 
to doing the good and righteous deeds of the law ! In both 
cases it is doing, but they who do the most are cursed and 
cannot be saved ; and they, the pious Christians who do the 
less, are saved and go to heaven ! And the' grace of God 
which, as they teach, is given only to them who do something, 
is not given to them who do much, but is only given to them 
who do little, who are very pious ! Thus, after all, their sys- 
tem which they call being saved by the grace of God, is this, 
that a man is in fact saved by doing, he is saved by works, 
but those who do the most and the best works, the righteous 
works of the law, will he damned, and those who do the fewer 
and the least worth, the works of piety, will go to heaven ! 
Thus a perfect law of doing right, that is, righteousness at all 
times, brings damnation,but an imperfect law of doing some- 
thing now and then, far less than righteousness, yea none at 
all, brings salvation and draws down from heaven the grace 
of God upon the doers of it ! 

Astonishing delusion ! for men to teach that God has bro- 
ken and set aside His law, which commands all righteous ac- 
tions, the whole duty of man, and that He has substituted 
for it a lesser duty and other deeds to be done by man, an- 
other and imperfect law, admitting some sin, not requiring 
all right and no wrong, and to teach that this is grace and 
gospel ! that He saves by grace those who do a little some- 
thing under this new law, and does not save those who do 
better things under His own law. But tins is their whole 



FAITH AND HOPE. II 

system. That they have something to do, gospel precepts, as 
they call it to obey, but they have not all the righteous deeds 
of the law, all righteousness to do, the law of God to obey. 
Thus they exalt the doing of useless things, singing, reading, 
going to Church, and keeping Sunday, which they command, 
above the doing of the righteous deeds of the law of God, 
truth, justice, and mercy to all men, things which are useful 
and profitable to men which God has commanded ! They de- 
ceive men by calling the piety, the law of things to do which 
they have set up by the name of gospel, grace, &c. These 
are lying names which they give to their piety. By what- 
f3ver name it may be called it is utter wickedness, for while 
it is doing, and is nothing but doing, it is not doing right to- 
wards all men at all times continually, which is the law of God, 
the whole and the only something ever given to man to do, 
he has nothing else whatever to do. It is setting aside the 
law of God to do no evil to any man, and pretending to do 
something for God instead ! despising the commandment of 
God to do something for men who want it, and not something 
for Him who wants nothing. Their law of doing and feel- 
ing is therefore diabolical wickedness, for it is not the law of 
God, it is not doing the good and righteous deeds of the law ! 
It is good for nothing to man, and what good is it before God ? 
They think however it is good enough for God, and that they 
will go to heaven for doing it. 

They say boldly this is not true, this is to slander them, 
that their law which they teach, the piety, the terms and con- 
ditions which they teach must be done in order to go to 
heaven, is righteousness and no evil, it is doing all righteous- 
ness to all men without exception and continually. They are 
ready to deny and assert any thing without regard to the 
truth. But if they speak the truth, and if it really is so, if 
they truly teach that all this righteousness is to be done, and 
nothing less, then it is the law of God which they teach, the 
very same law given by Moses ! Then if it is indeed so. why 
do they falsely call the law given by Moses of the tilings 
which man ought to do, the gospel of God ? Why do they 
call the law of God, the law of doing right, by lying and de- 
ceiving names, piety, grace, evangelical, experimental religion ? 
If it is indeed truth and righteousness to be done by man to 
man which they teach, the whole duty of man, which is the 
law of God, why do they call this law, which was given by 
Moses, the gospel of the grace of God ? By what authority 
do they promise men that they will go to heaven, justified 
before God, if they obey this law and do its righteous deeds 



12 THE pious christian's 

and all their duty t Why do they name the name of Christ 
and pretend to believe in Him, when they look to their own 
doing, even to their doing the deeds of this law in order to 
go to heaven ? Why, but in lies and for to deceive \ why but 
to overthrow and set aside the gospel in their enmity against 
the power, the Christ of Cod, as they have effectually slain 
and set aside the law in their hatred of the true righteous- 
ness, even righteous deeds taught and commanded by the 
law of God? 

It is astonishing wickedness thus to deceive men by teach- 
ing something to do in order to go to heaven, which is not the 
righteousness of the law of God, even the whole duty of 
man, the only something God has commanded men to do ! 



CHAPTER SECOND. 

THE PIOUS CHRISTIANS, IN PREACHING TO MEN THAT THEY WILL 
GO TO HEAVEN IF THEY ARE VERY PIOUS, ARE GUILTY OV 
ASTONISHING PRIDE, INSOLENCE, AND CONTEMPT TOWARDS GOD 

AND HIS LAV/. GOD HAS GIVEN NO COMMANDMENT NOR LAW 

OF ANY THING TO BE DONE BY MAN IN ORDER TO GO TO HEAVEN. 

They have made a law of things to be done which God 
has not given to men to do, and they have set aside the law 
of good conduct to men and righteous actions to be done con- 
tinually, which God has commanded men by His law to do. 
They call the law of pious deeds to be done, which they have 
invented, the gospel and grace, and imagine that they are 
going to heaven and promise men that they will go there if 
they do their deeds of piety, and go regularly to Church on 
Sundays. This is a bold and daring lie which they have 
forged. God has not given to man a commandment of any- 
thing to do in order to go to heaven, no not even His righteous 
law, much less a law of piety. Heaven, even the blessing in 
Christ Jesus, the seed of Abraham, is the gift of God, and is 
by Promise, given by grace, that is, for nothing, to all those 
His children whose eyes He opens, and gives them to hear 
His word, and receive Him, the Christ, the salvation of God, 
to enter and dwell in them, to be righteousness in them, that 
is, the doer of it, for there is no righteousness but doing 
righteousness ! 

God has given a righteous law for the earth which is over 
man, even all flesh on the earth, to do no evil, but to fear and 



FAITH AND HOPE. 



give heed to the law of God, the law of right, and to be very 
careful how they act and behave themselves, for they must 
surely give an account to God of all-their deeds done in the 
body, and it will fore with every man in the day when God 
will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, exactly accord- 
ing to his actions and conduct. But going to heaven by the 
deeds of man, according to his wisdom and virtue, in obedience 
to law and duty, is altogether out of the question. That is 
wholly by gift and promise to whom He will, and it is given 
for nothing from us or to be done by us. 

God hath given no law of something for men to do in order 
to go to heaven, whither they can only go by His favour. 
JNTo works of obedience by man to any law can take away 
and put off the heart of stone, the mind of the flesh, and thus 
take away sin. No law of man's doing any thing has ever 
been given by which corrupt man, who by wickedness is dead 
towards God, can become righteous, that is, have life and live 
before God. Thus the Scripture says : "If there had been a 
law given which could have given life, verily righteousness 
should have been by the law!' But no such law has ever 
been given. Therefore it is astonishing insolence and pride 
for men to set before men a law of things to do which God 
has not commanded, and to promise them that they will have 
life, they will go to heaven, if they do the things they teach. 
Life and righteousness and blessing is not by any law of 
human doing, it is by promise to the children and people of 
God, the purchased possession, to all to whom the Word is 
sent and who hear and receive it. It is the gift of God by 
Him whom He hath sent, even by Jesus Christ, the living 
Word of God. Him God sendeth to bless His people by 
turning them away from their iniquities, and His people hear 
His voice and receive Him to bless them by the gift and 
power of God. He dwelling in them by His spirit is right- 
eousness to them, and doeth all righteousness for them, fulfill- 
ing all the righteousness of the law in them, and He doing it, 
they do it not. Thus He is the Christ, and thus He saveth 
indeed, by doing all things for- us, so that we have them not 
to do. 

But the pious Christians exalt their false law of doing 
something, of doing and feeling their deep and deceiving 
piety, above the true and righteous law of God, which, as a 
man obeys, he is blessed in his deed, without however going 
to heaven for his deed. They teach that if men do then* 
piety and practise their religious and pious observances, they 
will go to heaven, while yet they teach that they could not 
2 



14 THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN'S 

go there if they did all the righteous deeds which the law of 
God commands to man upon the earth ! Thus with most 
astonishing pride and insolence, they make their piety, their 
law of doing something, to be such a law as the Holy Ghost 
has said never has been given. They exalt their doings of 
piety above the righteous law of God, by doing the good 
deeds of which law by man there is no going to heaven, for 
" by the deeds of the laio" good as they are for men when 
they do them, "shall no flesh living be justified" The saints 
of God of old among the Jews did these righteous works of 
the law of righteousness, they walked according to the law 
blameless, and yet they were not righteous before God, they 
were not justified. They did not pretend to be, they knew 
they were not righteous because they were under the law 
and did not fulfil all its righteousness, for it would be absurd 
to think that we were righteous when we were under a law 
of righteousness to fulfil and did not fulfil it. And it would 
be absurd for man to think that he fulfilled all the righteous- 
ness of the law, for that is righteousness without sin, it is the 
righteousness of God! They did not deceive themselves as 
the pious Christians do, and think they were going to heaven 
for deeds done by man. They longed after righteousness, 
even the righteousness of God, they waited day and night 
with earnest longing for the Salvation of God, His Christ,|to 
come unto them, that He by His spirit being in them, even 
truth and righteousness in the inward parts, they might have the 
righteousness of God and never more depart from God. The 
good actions or works of the law done by man are good for man, 
but they are not good enough for heaven ! A man is greatly 
blessed in his deed at all times according as he does them, 
but righteousness before God, such as we can stand in the 
presence of God therein for ever, and behold His face with- 
out fear in love, — righteousness in which there is no sin, which 
only is true righteousness, is not by any deeds of man. That 
righteousness is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is right- 
eousness, and who doeth it in all them His people who receive 
Him to do it, even them that believe in his name. 

Thus there is no going to heaven, no eternal life, no right- 
eousness, by the deeds of man, not even if he did all the 
righteous works of the law, which are works of truth, good- 
ness, and justice, exceedingly good and profitable to men and 
which bring their reward to them that do them. How then 
do they dare to promise men that they will go to heaven to 
dwell with God merely for doing the lying vanities of their 
piety ? Herein they are guilty of astonishing pride, insolence, 



FAITH AND HOPE. 15 

and contempt towards God and His law ! They exalt the 
false and trifling law of " being pious," which they have in- 
vented, a law of no righteousness, virtue nor honesty, a law 
of mere sentiment and feeling, a law of adhering to certain 
creeds and learned dogmas of men, a law of looks of dress, of 
outward show and profession, — they exalt all this folly above 
and make it superior to the righteous law of God, the law 
of right and of good actions to all men, the only thing for 
man to do, and the whole duty of man, to obey which is great 
earthly wisdom in men, and by which all men will be judged 
according as they have obeyed it, doing good or evil ! 



CHAPTER III. 

WHAT THE PIOUS CHRISTIANS CALL THE GOSPEL IS A LIE. IT 

IS A FALSE LAW WHICH THEY HAVE INVENTED, WHICH IS 
NEITHER THE LAW NOR THE GOSPEL OF GOD. 

They say confidently that they preach the gospel. They 
say they are not under the law, they are under grace. The 
gospel they preach, which they falsely call the gospel, is 
something for man to do in order to go to heaven. But 
it is not doing all right at all times, and no evil, which 
is the law of God. They teach only a few things to do, 
they have what they call gospel precepts to obey, and if 
they do these things, which they call conditions of salvation, 
they say they will be saved, they will go to heaven. And 
they call this " going to heaven by the grace of God." Thus 
they set up something to do, anci that is a law to do and 
obey, but they confess it is not the law of God. 

Thus what they teach to do, that is, their gospel, is a law ; 
for whatever man has to do, ought to do, and must do, is a 
law, obligation and duty over him to do. Thus they have 
a law, that is, something to do, and they are under this law, 
and they say it must be done, but it is not the law of God, 
to do all right continually and no wrong ; they call it the 
gospel. Therefore, they are under a false and imperfect law 
of their own invention. It is false and imperfect, because it is 
a law to do something less than all right continually ; it is 
not the perfect law to do no evil on the earth. Also, it is of 
their own invention, because God has given no half law, no 
imperfect law, a something to do, and yet a something less than 
all right, or righteousness and no evil whatever at any time. 



16 

Astonishing blindness and delusion ! To say they have 
something to do, and yet it is not that something and the 
only something to do, which God has commanded men to do ! 
They have not righteousness to do on the earth towards all 
men, but something else to go to heaven by doing, a new 
law called the gospel, to sing, to feel, to hear preaching, to 
read a chapter in the Bible now and then, to go to church 
once a week on Sundays, and all this instead of the law of 
God, doing right, and no evil to all men continually ! 

They say God has given them these things to do which 
they call the gospel, for they say they find them in the 
Bible, they are the precepts of the gospel. Thus to them, 
being dead, the living word is a dead letter, and the com- 
mandment of life they make to themselves a carnal com- 
mandment, that is, a something for man, the flesh, to per- 
form. The Word, which is righteousness, and doeth right- 
eousness in them that receive him, they not receiving him, 
make to bj a dead letter, a law of death, not giving life, but 
giving the task, duty, and obligation, the death of doing right- 
eousness ourselves, instead of receiving it by faith from God, 
The gospel, as the Spirit of God has said, is " the power of 
God :" it is His doing, His working all righteousness by Jesus 
Christ, his Word, in them to whom the Word comes, who hear 
and receive Him to do righteousness, that is, who believe in 
Him. And that only is salvation, doing righteousness. But 
the law to do righteousness, is not doing righteousness ; it is 
the duty of doing that which ought to be done. And it is a duty 
upon all those to do it themselves, who have not and receive 
not God to do it for them and in them, that is, who believe 
not in God and Him, His Word, whom he hath sent. 

The gospel is salvation, because it is God's doing all right- 
eousness for us and in us, and the law is condemnation, be- 
cause it is man's having it to do, and it is not done. Every 
word and commandment winch God speaks to them who 
believe in God, is the word and power of God, for when 
He speaks it is done. But every word received by man, who 
is the flesh, who believes not, not receiving the living Word 
of God, is only such as he, the flesh, understands it with his 
■fleshly mind, and cannot be any thing else to him, it is a car- 
nal commandment, something for him to do. He does not 
believe in God to do, and it is not done, but he knows good 
and evil ; he knows it is right and good, and ought to be 
done, and that is the law, the knowledge of what ought to 
be done. 

How all that is right and good for man to do, and which 



FAITH AND HOPE. If 

ought to be done, wherever it may be found, is the law and 
commandment of God, and is all comprised in the law given 
by Moses. But to him that believeth in God, every Word of 
God is the power of God, the doing of God, and not a carnal 
commandment. The precepts of the gospel, when it is for 
man himself to do them, are the law of God ; they are all 
contained in that law. There is nothing good which ought 
to be done, but it is contained in that law, and is the right- 
eousness of the law, which is all good, and no evil contin- 
ually. To him that believeth every word and command- 
ment of God, even all righteousness, is the power of God, the 
doing of God in him that believeth, and not a carnal com- 
mandment, not a something for man to do by his power — ■ 
God forbid ! The law given by Moses, even all righteous- 
ness, all good-doing, when it is God who doeth it all in us, 
by his son, Jesus Christ, his Word, received to be in us 
doing it, is the gospel of God. But when man has it to do 
himself, not believing in God and his Word, then it is a carnal 
commandment, the law of Moses, and a fiery law, burning up 
them that do it not. He that believeth, receiveth the living 
Word of God, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to enter in him, 
and God doeth by Him, his Word, what He speaks and com- 
mands. For when he speaks to them that believe, it is done. 
The Word and the doing of God is one and the same. But he 
that has to do himself, he receives not the Word of God to do> 
— he is dead — he believes not — the word is a dead word to 
hini who is dead — it is not the word of life to him — it is to him, 
the flesh, a fleshly law, a carnal commandment for him to 
do it all himself, and that is death, because it is not done. 
But he that receives God, to do by Jesus Christ, his living 
Word, receives the power of God, it is done, and that is life, 
for doing the commandments of God is life. He that re- 
ceives not God, to do all by his Word, having all to do him- 
self, does not believe in God, to him God is not. 

Therefore all good precepts and commandments of the 
Scripture of truth wherever found, whether called gospel, or by 
any other name, unless received as they are in truth, even the 
living Word of God, who, when he speaks, it is done, are but 
a dead letter to the dead man, who loveth unrighteousness. 
To him they are a carnal commandment, giving him a duty, 
even a law, which it is good to do, and which ought to be 
done. ISfow the law of God is the whole duty of man, and 
it is to do all right, which is righteousness at all times, and 
not to do wrong. God hath commanded this, and nothing 
less than this ; it is the law ; something less, would be some 
2* 



18 THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN'S 

wrong. He hath commanded all right, not a part or frag- 
ment of it, not a little bit of piety now and then, but all right 
continually, and no evil. They, therefore, who teach to do a 
few little things occasionally, a few ceremonies and obser- 
vances which do not belong to the righteousness of the law, 
which alone God saith He requires, who teach not men that 
they must do all right to all men, and no evil ; who tell them 
that they will go to heaven, if they, dead men, do the things 
they teach them to do, they deceive and destroy men, and 
trample under foot the law of God ! They destroy men, all 
men who hear them, whoever they are, terribly ! For 
though men cannot go to heaven by their fleshly deeds, by 
doing a duty, nor by their doing any thing whatever, yet 
they are to be judged as men according to their deeds of 
right and wrong, and not according to their keeping religious 
observances, or believing religious creeds. The Scripture is 
express, declaring over and over again, that all men will be 
judged according to their actions, their deeds done in the body, 
to their fellow men, and will be dealt with accordingly, not 
indiscriminately, not for being men and vain flesh, bat for 
their actions, " according to their deeds," to one another on 
the earth. All the measure, proportion and amount of their 
peace, comfort and happiness as men, such as they are, de- 
pends entirely, now and hereafter, upon their deeds and 
actions, their conduct and behaviour here upon earth towards 
one another, according to the law of God, and not their own 
standards and measures of right and wrong. 

The pious Christians, in presuming to call the piety, th« 
something which they teach men to do, some good now and 
then, or once a week, the gospel, only deceive men the more. 
For the whole law of God, all good to be done by men con- 
tinually, is not the gospel, it is the law : much less then is 
only a part of this, some good, a part of all the duty of man, 
the gospel. The gospel would be a very wicked thing, if 
this was the gospel ! if it was a little something to do, a little 
piety, and not all righteousness. They have represented 
this to be the gospel of Jesus Christ, man's doing a little 
good now and then, not fulfilling all the righteousness of the 
law, and in so doing, they have put Him to an open shame, 
and crucified Him afresh. But if they taught that men must 
do all right always and no evil, they would teach men to do 
the law, and it would be deceiving men to tell them that it 
was the gospel, and that they would go to heaven, and appear 
in righteousness before God by their doing it ! Much more 
do they deceive men in teaching them to do a part of the 



FAITH AND HOPE. 19 

law of right, a few good deeds occasionally, and telling them 
that this is the gospel, and they will go to heaven if they do 
it, very piously and devoutly ! Therefore what the pious 
Christians teach men that they must do as conditions in order 
to go to heaven, is not the gospel. It is something man has 
to do, a law over him of things to do, and no law to do, is 
the gospel. Even the true, perfect, and good law of God, 
with all its righteous deeds which it commands, the whole 
and only duty of man, is not the gospel, much less is any 
imperfect, corrupt law of other things to he done, the gospel, 
the power of God. 

The gospel is not any thing to be done by man ; it is not 
deeds for him to do; if it was it would be a law. The 
gospel, as the scripture declares, is " The Power of GocL" 
It is what God does, and He alone, by His word, His Son, Jesus 
Christ, whom all those receive who are of God ; and what he 
does, dwelling in his people, who receive him, is the will of 
God, even all the righteousness of the law. The gospel can- 
not be any thing for sinful man to do, for he has got already 
enough to do, the law of right, all his earthly duty to do, as 
God hath commanded it. It cannot be any thing done by 
man, for it is the " Power of God," and man's deeds and 
actions are not the power of God — they are the power of 
evil, which God has suffered to prevail in this world for a 
short season. It cannot be the power of man, for it is the 
blessing, the gift of eternal life, and man has no power to 
give himself eternal life and blessing by doing something ; 
he has no power even to give or retain the breath in his 
nostrils by doing something, or by all he can do. 

Thus the gospel which the pious Christians teach, which, 
deceiving men, they falsely call gospel, is not the gospel, for 
it is something for man to do, something which he does ; it 
is not the power and doing of God. Also it is not the law 
of God, for it is not doing all righteousness and no evil con- 
tinually. Therefore what they teach and call the gospel, is 
neither the law nor the gospel ! But God hath given no 
other witnesses than these two, by both of wmich he testifies 
of righteousness ; therefore their gospel is wickedness, it is 
a lie. 



20 THE pious christian's 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN'S SCHEME OF REDEMPTION, THE WICKED- 
NESS OF THE SYSTEM WHICH THEY CALL GRACE AND GOS- 
PEL, SET BEFORE TPIEIR EYES. 

The first and great foundation of their whole gospel sys- 
tem and scheme of redemption is this : " We must do some- 
tliing in order to go to heaven." This is the foundation of 
all, and is never out of their minds for one instant. This is 
the natural doctrine of man ; it is the natural enmity, blind- 
ness, and ignorance of the flesh, the man without God, who 
is like the beasts that perish. It is the doctrine of the beast. 
It is the common principle of brutish human nature, of all 
mankind naturally, of those who never knew and never 
heard of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It has 
been in all ages of the world the foundation, essence, and 
substance of the worship and religions of all pagan and 
heathen nations, and of all people except the people of God, 
the Jews in ancient times, who believed in God and waited 
for His salvation, His Christ, to come and to bless them, 
leading and guiding them in His righteousness. 

When a man says, " I must do something in order to go 
to heaven," he says in his heart, in the pride and ignorance 
< >f the flesh, " I am important, good and mighty," for he says 
in his heart, " I have a right to go to heaven if I will, and I 
am able to go there by my doing something." Such* is the 
brutish ignorance and pride of man, of the man who knows 
not God, but who has become a pious man and a religious 
professor, the man who is uncircumcised in heart, not having 
put off by the death of Christ the enmity, the mind of the 
flesh, not being joined by faith with Christ, a son with Him, 
and one spirit with Him. 

He says in his heart by this doctrine that God is subject 
to him, for that provided he does something, and is very 
pious, he ought to go to heaven, and that God is bound to 
admit him as a matter of course. His evil heart tells him, 
that if he only chooses to do something, and to be very 
pious, sincerely and eminently pious, that then it would be 
quite shocking not to let him go to heaven and dwell with 
God ! Therefore, if he does something, God of course is 
bound to receive him, and make him his son and heir, and 



FAITH AXD ROPE. 21 

one of his family in heaven, whether He will or no, for the 
will and good pleasure of God, with this man, is altogether 
out of the question. 

He says in his heart, by this wicked doctrine of the pride, 
blindness, enmity, and desperate wickedness of man, that 
the righteous law of God is a lie, and is unrighteous and un- 
just ; for he says it is not true what the law says, but it is a 
lie that they who do not fulfil all its righteousness are 
cursed and do not go to heaven ; he says he has a right to 
go there if he pleases, and that he only needs do a little 
something, a little piety now and then, and then he is sure 
to go there without fulfilling all the righteousness of the 
law ! Also he says, that if he does not go to heaven it will 
be very unjust, and that it will not be just and righteous to 
deal with him according to his deeds, as he himself has 
dealt with his fellow-creatures. No ! he says it is quij£ an 
unjust law so to deal with him as he has dealt, and so to 
mete to him as he has measured out to others, and that he, 
the beast, ought to go to heaven in spite of the law, though 
he has trampled under foot his fellow-creatures, and defraud- 
ed the hireling of his wages ! 

Also by this doctrine the evil and proud heart of the 
wicked man shows that he has in his brutish ignorance and 
pride no conception whatever of the truth and fact that God 
He is God ! He is the Lord ! He is the Master of His own 
house ! He admits into His own family in heaven just whom 
He pleases, and only whom he pleases to admit ! This is 
a plain truth and fact that the pious Christians of this day, 
in their pride and wisdom, laugh utterly to scorn as some- 
thing quite monstrous and absurd, and they are positive that 
God is not God, that He has no election in the matter in His 
own affairs and in His own house, but they are going to hea- 
ven if they please, and just as they please, by doing some- 
tlnng and just anything whatever they please. 

Also he who says that he must do something in order to 
go to heaven has forgotten God ! He knows not God ! He 
knows not and believes not the truth that God is good, and 
those whom, according to the good pleasure of His will, He 
takes and makes them partakers of His bliss and glory, He 
does this for nothing. He gives them all for nothing, with- 
out their paying anything, without their doing something for 
it, without money, yea, without price. These plain truths 
and facts the haters of God resist, deny and oppose, viz. : 
that God He is God, He doeth what He will, and he gives 
to whom He will ; and He is good, He gives freely, He 



22 THE pious christian's 

gives gratuitously, He gives for nothing all things by Jesus 
Christ, to the poor and needy, to the hungry and thirsty, 
without their doing anything for it at all. He does not sell, as 
the wicked, the enemies of God, the pious Christians of tins 
day teach, the heathen who have come into God's inherit- 
ance and laid Jerusalem in heaps ! 

Tliis principle is the natural principle of the human heart 
and mind, it is the mind of man, of the flesh, with the law 
working naturally in it ; it is enmity against God, it is al- 
ways at work in the heart against God. It is the strength 
of sin, for it says : " Yfe must not believe in God, we must 
not receive God to be our God, to do all things for us, to 
save us from all sin, to do all righteousness for us. No ! we 
must do and not believe, we must be very pious, we must do 
our something in order to be saved P Thus the very law, 
that we ought to do righteousness, is made by the flesh, by 
the evil heart and mind of man, a law that we must not do 
righteousness, even a law that we must not and ought not 
to believe in God ; thus, instead of being a law of righteous- 
ness to the flesh, he makes it to himself a law of sin and 
death ! for it is sin and death not to believe in God, not to 
receive God to be all righteousness to us, to do all righteous- 
ness for us and in us, by His Word, His Christ. While this 
enmity lives, and according as it prevails, we are enemies to 
God. He hath sent His Word, His Christ, who came down 
from His glory and was made flesh, even sin for us, who 
knew no sin, and being in the flesh, being found in fashion 
as a man, was then first named Jesus, because he should 
save His people from their sins. He hath slain this enmity 
for His people in His own body on the tree, or else they 
never could be blessed. This is the sacrifice of the beast, 
the slaying of the enmity which was shown that it should 
be accomplished in all ages, by the sacrifice of beasts. By 
His death He hath redeemed us from the invincible enmity 
of the flesh, and hath reconciled us to God. Having slain 
the enmity, the mind of the flesh, and being raised from the 
dead, He is exalted at the right hand of God, and is the 
Christ who delivers us from iniquity, and dwelling in us, per- 
forms all righteousness for us, and we have it not to do. We 
receive Him, the Salvation of God, to do it for us, that is, 
we believe. Being joined by faith with Him, we put off by 
His death the flesh, the enmity, the foreskin of uncleanness, 
and are one with Him, one spirit, one mind, one heart, hav- 
ing been branches of Him before, created sons of God in 
Him before the foundation of the world, but separated from 



FAITH AND HOPE. 23 

God by the flesh, the enmity, even sin. Receiving Him to 
do all things for us, that is believing, He, the living Word, 
enters into us, we enter into Him, into righteousness, we are 
filled with Him, the law of the Lord is in our hearts, for He, 
all the righteousness of the law, is in us and with us, we de- 
part from all iniquity, we serve God and keep His com- 
mandments, — yet not we, God forbid, we do nothing, it is 
Christ who dwelleth in us ! Thus the law is fulfilled in us 
by Him, and we are blessed in Him. 

This natural principle of the flesh, that is, of man, is enmity 
against God. It is the foundation and essence of all the im- 
pure and defiled religions of the nations that know not God 
in all ages, viz. : " We must do something, we must do it 
solemnly, awfully, seriously, devoutly, zealously, sincerely, 
we must be very pious, very pious indeed, we must do our 
great things, and then we shall go to heaven !" The Jews 
only in ancient times differed from all other nations, being 
taught of God. Those among them who were Jews inward- 
ly, believed in God for salvation and blessing, not in the 
beast, man, and his doing something in order to plant him- 
self in heaven ! They believed the Word, " Salvation is of 
God," they hated the he of man, viz., salvation is of man, 
that is, it is by man's doing something in order to be saved. 
This natural principle, the enmity of the flesh against God 
and His righteousness, even his doing all for us and saving 
us by His Christ, is now the foundation and essence of the 
impure and defiled religion of the pious Christians. It is 
the doctrine of man, an unclean beast before God, it is the 
beast, and the followers of this doctrine are the worshippers 
of the beast. This beast which now triumphs and prospers 
on the earth, the religious world, is the bitter enemy of God 
and His Christ, even His righteousness, which is His doing 
all righteousness for them that believe, so that He doing it, 
they have it not to do. Thus He is Our Righteousness, for 
there is no righteousness but doing righteousness. The Scrip- 
ture saith, " He that doeth righteousness is righteous." 

For ages past, even during all the long desolation of 1260 
years, this enmity, this doctrine, this beast, that is, the men 
who held and taught this doctrine, calling it Christianity and 
the Christian religion, have had great power, and have over- 
come the saints of God, forcing this doctrine of man upon 
them, but the beast has never totally prevailed to slay the 
truth, the doctrine of Christ altogether, until the present 
day, which is the consummation of desolation. The beast, 
this enmity, this impure and defiled religion, has always 



24 the pious christian's 

been fighting against the doctrine of Christ and His righ- 
teousness ; but in this day, the beast which ascendeth out of 
the bottomless pit of the earth has overcome and slain all 
the truth of God, both of His law and gospel, and the dead 
bodies of these two witnesses whom they have killed are 
scattered up and down all the streets of their great reli- 
gious city, as the Lord revealed. These two witnesses, the 
law and the gospel, the sun and the moon, are now extin- 
guished in the religious world, the earth ; darkness covers , 
the earth, and gross darkness the people, and the only law 
and gospel which they have now is, " We must be very 
pious, we must do wonderful things, we must do a great 
deal of good, we must feel, we must do something in order 
to go to heaven, and if we do, oh ! if we do a great deal, 
and are very truly, sincerely, and wonderfully pious, why 
then we shall go to heaven ! God is altogether out of the 
question with this beast ; it is all his doing, liis wonderful 
piety, Ms deep feelings, and his religious duties, and all they 
want God for is merely to stand aside and help them a little 
now and then to do something, and then to admit them into 
heaven if they are pleased to go there ! And tins ancillary 
office of helping them on now and then, and influencing and 
enticing them in their career of pious glory, they call the 
" wonderful grace of God, the wonderful, glorious gospel, the 
wonderful mercy of God !" Being turned upside down, 
calling the most atrocious wickedness and falsehood by the 
great names of righteousness and truth. 

The second principle and foundation of their system and 

scheme. 

This is the first principle, the foundation of their scheme 
and system which they call grace and gospel, viz : that they 
must do something! Having laid the foundation, and thus 
undertaken to do something, to do good, to do righteousness 
in order to go to heaven, what do they do ? Do they do 
righteousness ? Do they believe the law of God that there is 
no true righteousness but fulfilling the righteousness of the 
law ? that without that righteousness every man is cursed ? 
that he that continueth not in all things written to do them, 
not talk about them, is cursed ? Quite the contrary. Having 
undertaken to do righteousness, they immediately turn round 
and say that it need not be done ! The law of righteousness 
is too much for them, it is too severe, they are poor miserable 
sinners, they are not under the law, they are under grace ; they 
have only to do a few little things, to follow a few precepts. 



FAITH AND HOPE. 25 

And this is the grace of God to give them something less to 
do than all the righteousness of the law continually, and they 
will go to heaven for being very pious, without righteousness, 
that is, without fulfilling the righteousness of the law ! So 
the grace of the gospel is this, that because they are imperfect 
creatures God will let them go to heaven if they do the best 
they can, without fulfilling the righteousness of the law ! 
Then in ecstacies at this grace in being as they imagine ad- 
mitted to heaven for a little piety without the perfect right- 
eousness of the law, they cry out " Oh what wonderful grace, 
what wonderful mercy," and they really think they know 
and believe the grace of God ! Thus the grace of God with 
them is this, viz. that God is gracious to men because they 
are imperfect, that is, corrupt, unclean, sinful creatures, and 
therefore in His grace He overthrows all right, even all the 
law of right, and gives them something less than right to do 
in order to go to heaven ! and this is the gospel, this is grace ! 
And then after breaking the law and setting it aside and giv- 
ing them a few conditions and precepts to do instead of 
righteousness, then according to their vile scheme God is 
gracious no more, but like them, He changes and turns round 
and says that if they do not do the little things they have 
now got to do, if they are not very pious, very sincerely and 
truly pious, and if they do not feel deeply and sensibly what 
sinners they are, they shall be damned and go to everlasting 
burnings and hell fire ! and this is the glorious gospel of the 
grace of God! 

Never was there such blasphemy, and wickedness, and folly, 
and crime, as this their system, which they call grace and 
gospel ! It is a total overthrow both of the law and of the 
gospel, and of the one by the other ! They will not believe in 
God and receive Him by His Christ to do all righteousness, 
fulfilling the righteousness of the law. Oh no ! they have got 
something to do themselves, they have got to do good, that 
is righteousness (for there is no other good before God but 
righteousness, and that righteousness the righteousness of 
the law.) Thus they overthrow the gospel. Then they 
need not have righteousness, they need not fulfil all the 
righteousness of the law ! Oh no ! God is so gracious, He 
has set that aside, He has given gospel precepts to do instead, 
and if they are very pious and perform the -conditions they 
will go to heaven without the righteousness of the law ! 
Thus they overthrow the law ! Thus they make God a 
liar and His law a lie ! For the law is an utter lie if 
righteousness need not be fulfilled, if men who do evil can 
3 



26 THE pious christian's 

go to heaven. None but the righteous can go to heaven, even 
those who receive Jesus Christ to do all righteousness in them, 
fulfilling the righteousness of the law in them. They only 
can be saved. In other words only he that believeth can be 
^aved, for he that believeth doeth righteousness, yet not he 
but Christ who dwelleth in him. 

Thus their first principle is " we must do something." Then 
they say since it is a settled point that they must ascend 
into heaven by their doing something, and since they are 
wicked and corrupt as they pretend to acknowledge, and 
therefore they cannot fulfil all the righteousness of the law, 
God gives them something less to do ! This is the second 
principle of their system ! By the first they deny God and 
His power, even His gospel! By the second they deny the 
law, and overthrow right and righteousness ! For when men 
may do a little good of their own choosing, a little piety, and 
not the good which God teaches and commands by His law, 
there is an end of all right and righteousness on the earth 
among men. When they say they are not required to fulfil 
the righteousness of the law because they are poor helpless 
sinners, it is to say that the law is wrong, and that they must 
go to heaven without righteousness, by doing just as much 
as they choose to do, because they are too wicked to do what 
they ought to do. It is great boldness in those who pretend 
to be and to look so humble, and say they feel such deep hu- 
mility, to set themselves up as lawgivers in things pertaining 
to God and His glory, and to give themselves something to 
do in order to go to heaven less than what the law of God 
commands, and to say that this violation of the law is grace, 
and they will go to heaven if they do it ! 

They overthrow the law in giving themselves something 
less to do than its righteous commands, and they overthrow the 
gospel by giving something to do. For it is neither grace, 
nor gift, nor gospel, if we have to do or to pay something for 
the blessing ! They also, by overthrowing the law and its 
perfect righteousness, deny Christ altogether. For they say 
since we sinners cannot do the righteousness of the law, so 
that we can be righteous before God, therefore there is no 
Christ to do and give righteousness, and bring us to God in 
perfect righteousness, but we must do less than the righteous- 
ness of the law ! They take it for granted that since we men 
cannot do righteousness good enough for heaven, that is, what 
alone is real righteousness, in which ihere is no sin, therefore 
no one else can do it ! Therefore there is no God good enough 
and mighty enough to give it and do it ! There is no Christ 



FAITH AND HOPE, 2T 

by whom is this salvation ! Thus they deny God and His 
Christ by their doctrine. For they say since we cannot do 
righteousness, therefore it need not be done at all ! There is 
no God to send salvation, there is no Christ to do all righteous- 
ness for us, we will go to heaven with less than righteousness, 
that is, without it ! Thus to them the law is a lie, and there 
is no Christ, the righteousness of God, the doer of righteous- 
ness in them that receive Him, who doeth the will of God ! 
Such is the blesphemy and wickedness of their doctrine ! Thus 
they deny God, and His law and His gospel, His Christ ! These 
people, with such a doctrine, the doctrine of those who never 
heard of Moses or of Christ, to whom there is no law of God 
and no Christ, no righteousness of God, call themselves pious 
Christians, and pretend to believe in Christ ! 

Thus they undertake to go to heaven by a righteousness 
less than righteousness, that is, by wickedness I They cannot 
fulfil the righteousness of the law, they are imperfect crea- 
tures, poor miserable sinners ! And they cannot receive the 
gift of righteousness, Jesus Christ, to do all righteousness, 
clothing us with righteousness, even with himself, doing it all 
in us ; they are not poor and imperfect enough for that, that 
is quite ridiculous ! Yea the power, the love, the gift, the good- 
ness of God, His salvation and blessing by Christ His right- 
eousness, is ridiculous in their eyes, they will not have the gift 
of God, they will do sometliing themselves, but not what they 
have got to do ! They will do something of their own which 
they greatly admire, calling it piety. It is wickedness ! And all 
their system, their faith, their hope, their feelings, their vital 
godliness, their experimental religion, then evangelical Chris- 
tianity, ie wickedness ! It is despising, casting down, and over- 
throwing the righteousness of the law of God, all the law of 
righteousness, and despising, slaying, putting to death, and 
crucifying afresh the Christ of God! They have not the 
righteousness of the law to fulfil ! Oh no ! that is ridiculous ! 
That is preaching perfection ! Thus the law of God is ridicu- 
lous to them. And God does not give and do all righteousness 
for His people by His word, His son Jesus Christ, whom he 
hath sent, — no indeed ! that is perfectly ridiculous, that is 
having God to do all tilings for us, that is believing in God, 
that is giving nothing to man to do in order to go to heaven ! 
That is quite ridiculous ! Thus the law of God is ridiculous 
to them, and Jesus Christ, the doer of righteousness, the Christ 
of God, is ridiculous to them ; both His law and His gospel 
are ridiculous in their eyes and to their wisdom. Having set 
aside, slain, and destroyed by their doctrines both these two 



28 THE pious christian's 

only witnesses of God, they are resolved to go to heaven with- 
out either of them, without righteousness from one or the other 
of them, without doing themselves the righteousness of the 
law, and without receiving Christ to do it ! but by feeling, 
looking, and doing what they think to be better than either, 
by being very nice and pious ; and that is not ridiculous in 
their eyes, — no, that is vital piety, that is experimental evan- 
gelical Christianity ! Such is their wicked scheme and plan 
by which they believe they are going to go to heaven ! 

Their scheme leads men into greater damnation. It would be 
no kindness to the children of men to relax the law. 

Christ came not to destroy the law and the prophets, not 
to set aside or diminish the righteousness they preach, but to 
fulfil it in all them that believe. They that do not this 
righteousness are not blessed. He came to save His people 
from their sins, their not fulfilling this righteousness, and for 
which they were in condemnation, that they might be a right- 
eous people, and be blessed, doing the will of God. Not that 
it should not be done as the pious Christians teach, or which 
is the same thing, that less than it should be done ; God for- 
bid ! but that He should do it all in them. It would be no 
grace to diminish the righteousness of the law by giving 
something less than it to do, for any thing less would be less 
than right and would be sin. If men were permitted some 
sin, they would commit every sin. Though they cannot 
do good, that is, righteousness, in which they can appear 
before God, yet when they fear they do many things and 
can do much for their own earthly advantage. But the 
more they are let loose from restraint, the worse they act. 
So that the more grace the Christians put into their evil 
scheme, the more ungracious and unkind to men is their scheme. 
There can be no blessing nor salvation by it, for men are as 
certainly condemned under a law to do a little good now and 
then as under the true law to do no wrong whatever at any 
time to any one. But they are worse damned under the pious 
Christian's law of doing a little something now and then, for 
they are drawn and enticed by it to damnation. The license 
which it gives them to do some sin encourages them in all 
evil. They entertain the false hope of being saved, notwith- 
standing they commit sin, by the grace which they are falsely 
taught to believe is given for the little things of piety which, 
they do now and then. They vainly suppose that they will 
go to heaven to dwell with God for the little good or piety 
which they think they do, and that there is no law and con- 



FAITH AND HOPE. 29 

demnation for the evil they do. Under this delusion they 
cast off all fear of God, and tremble not at His law, and fear 
not to do evil, because they think they are going to heaven ! 
Thus men are worse damned under this false gospel of doing 
a little something now and then, than under the true law to 
do no evil whatever. They fear less and they act worse, 
and they receive the greater damnation. For men will be 
judged according to their deeds, therefore one evil deed more 
into which they are enticed, is one pang more in their 
hearts and consciences, it is an increase of damnation. There- 
fore to set up this false law of being pious and going to Church 
on Sundays, instead of the law of God to do all its righteous 
deeds, is to deceive and destroy men, and to say it is the gos- 
pel, is to he unto them. It is no common lying, it is no com- 
mon sin of mankind. With deceitful looks and uplifted hands 
they take the name of God on their lips to give authority to 
their own lying, and say that their damnable doctrine and 
delusion by which they destroy men is God's doctrine ! 

It would be no kindness to the children of God to relax the 

laic. 
It would be no grace, mercy, or kindness of God to his 
people, if he were to relax the law, and suffer them to do 
any evil whatever with impunity. It would be leaving them 
to be cursed. For they never could be blessed, they never 
could know God and approach unto him so long as they re- 
mained in sin, doing evil, not doing his will, which is all the 
righteousness of the law. For wherever there is evil-doing, 
there is the inevitable curse of the law. Therefore God doth 
not suffer his people to do any evil whatever, which would 
be to suffer them to remain accursed. Therefore the law is 
more terrible to them than to others. For He chastens them, 
and teaches them out Gf his law, that they may learn right- 
eousness, that they may know the exceeding sinfulness of 
sin, that when they are chastened enough, and the evil flesh 
is put down and slain with Christ, he may give them rest in 
Him, his righteousness. Therefore He doth not give them any 
hope that there can be any rest or blessing for them without 
righteousness, even to do it. Therefore He doth not set aside 
his law over them, but teaches them by terrible chastenings 
the certain truth of the law, that righteousness must be done, 
no evil must be done, there is no peace to the wicked, even 
to them who do not fulfil all the righteousness of the law. 
It is because the righteousness of the law must be fulfilled, 
and that there is no peace without it, he sends his son, 
Jesus Christ, liis living word, from heaven, even the spirit of 



SO THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN'S 

his son, into the hearts of his people, to dwell in them, doing 
all righteousness in and for them, and so the law is truly 
fulfilled and they are blessed ! 

He, the Christ of God, not only fulfils all its righteousness 
in his people who receive him, but he also fulfils in himself 
all the sacrifices, burnt offerings, and figures of the law 
besides, for he is the substance of things hoped for, the hea- 
venly original and pattern of the earthly figures which Moses 
made, according to the pattern in heaven. He is the Sab- 
bath of God from everlasting, the true rest in spirit and in 
truth, the sacrifice and oblation in body and in spirit, and so 
all the law is really fulfilled, in its righteousness, and in all 
things. And they that are taught of God will hear and re- 
ceive Him by the gift and power of God, and trust no longer 
in man, for vain is the help of man ! 

Their doctrine that if they are truly and sincerely pious, 

they believe they worship God, is ivickedness and folly. 

The doctrine of worshipping God by being very pious, and 
doing many things, or any thing, is the doctrine of whore- 
dom and abomination. It is the natural doctrine of man, 
of the heathen who know not God ; it is not whoredom in 
them, it is their natural religion, but it is in those who call 
themselves servants and children of the living God. 

The true worshippers of the true God worship him, enter- 
ing into his holy temple, his Christ. Out of him there is no 
knowledge, and no worship of God. They behold the glory 
of God in Him his holy habitation. In Him, receiving every 
blessing and good gift, in Him being cleansed by his blood, 
and in Him being righteous and without spot, they give 
thanks to God by Him, and praise Him in him for all his 
goodness to them. 

Thus we are blessed, we are saved, we are made alive, we 
are in Jesus Christ, his holy temple — that is, we believe, be- 
fore we can possibly worship God. 

The doctrine of the pious christians is exactly the reverse 
of the truth. They teach, you must first begin and do some- 
thing ; you must first be very pious, and then if you do all 
this you are a believer, you worship God. Therefore they 
set to work to do a great many things, to be very pious, and 
when they think they have done enough, they think they are 
believers and worshippers of God, and are surely going to 
heaven. Thus when they teach and exhort men to be very 
pious, they destroy men, turning them away from God, 
teaching them to despise his holy temple, and to trust in 
whoredoms. For it is whoredom to think by painting our 



FAITH AND HOPE. 31 

faces, and making ourselves pretty by piety, and doing- 
something, that we please God, and entice him to love us. 
It is downright whoredom. 

Their doctrine is to do something first, get an experience 
first, and believe afterwards. Having done their piety and 
got their experience, they are puffed up with pride, and 
think they are going to heaven. Their piety, and pious feel- 
ings and exercises are good for nothing, for they are not the 
deeds of the law, which are good and profitable to men. 
Their pious exercises do not clothe the naked, nor feed the 
hungry, nor defend the fatherless and afflicted. 

What folly, to think to please God and go to heaven by 
things winch do not even please men, and are not good 
enough for them ; for men would rather have common hon- 
esty than all this piety. Then* natural knowledge of the 
law, which all men know naturally, teaches them the truth, 
that to do right is better than piety. Thus men, even men, 
know there is something which is better than piety, and look 
for something better ; it is not good enough, even for men. 
Therefore it is folly to think that if we do these pious prac- 
tices and have these pious feelings, we have got the true 
righteousness, we believe in God, and shall go to heaven. 

There is no good, there is no wisdom, in all this piety ; it is 
human pride and folly. But it is wisdom, it is not pride and 
folly, to fear God, our Maker, and his law, to do right, even 
the right and good deeds of the law, mercy, justice and 
truth towards all men — this is not folly ; this is what God 
commands to be done. And yet for doing this, which is 
great earthly wisdom in earthly men, a man will not go to 
heaven. If he does all the good deeds of the law, though 
he will have his reward, and have cause to be glad that he 
has done them, yet he will not go to heaven for it, for by the 
deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified. Thus a 
man will not go to heaven for deeds of human goodness and 
wisdom done by man, for sin is with them ; it is not right- 
eousness before God ; much less will he go to heaven for 
deeds of human pride and folly, even for piety. 

They are artful, ingenious and industrious in devising 
plans to deceive themselves, and in contriving words to sus- 
tain their folly. They say we do not teach that a man will 
go to heaven for being pious ; we teach that only he that 
believes will be saved. Thus they willingly deceive them- 
selves, for they are very anxious to be deceived. They say 
if a man believes he will be saved ; but they say if he is very 
pious, and has an experience, then he believes ! It is the 



32 THE pious christian's 

same thing as to say if he is pious he will be saved, only it 
is contriving to say it, and to hide it by deceit ! They really 
'imagine that if they are pious, they believe. Tins is wick- 
edness and folly. If a man does all good deeds, omitting 
none, and the deeds of the law are all good deeds, he does 
not believe, he is not justified, he is not righteous before God. 
How much less is being pious and doing the useless deeds of 
piety, believing in God. Since all the righeousness of man, 
which is good and excellent for man, is not faith in God, how 
much less is that which is not righteousness, even before 
men, winch is not good and profitable to men, faith in God ? 

When we do our works we receive the reward of our 
works, according as they are good or evil ; but when we be- 
lieve in God, we receive the gift of righteousness and bless- 
ing from God. Receiving the reward of our works is not 
receiving the gift of God, because doing our work is not be- 
lieving in God. If doing our works, if doing piety, and being 
sincerely and truly pious as they speak, in admiration of 
their piety — if doing any thing whatever means believing in 
God, surely doing the best things, doing all the good deeds 
of the law, would be believing in God. But it is not ; for 
doing them all, even if a man did them all, he would not be 
justified, he would not be righteous before God ; he would 
not have that righteousness in which he could appear before 
God, and rejoice in his presence. Doing our deeds does not 
bring everlasting righteousness, but faith in God does. There- 
fore doing our deeds is not faith in God. 

Therefore whatever we do, we do not believe in God, but 
when we enter, when it is given to us to enter into his 
Christ, his righteousness, his holy temple, then we receive 
righteousness from God, we stand in righteousness in the 
presence and grace of God, we receive the Christ, the salva- 
tion of God, we receive every thing from God, we believe. 
Then hi him, blessed and covered with righteousness in him, 
we worship God and praise and thank him for his gifts, his 
wonderful works to us, the children of men. When we do 
our works, we receive the full reward, the real worth of 
them, but not more than they are worth ; not heaven. That 
would not be just, to give for things infinitely more than 
they are worth. God is righteous. He knows the full value 
of things, every man will be honestly paid for what he hon- 
estly does. But heaven, and blessing, and eternal life and 
righteousness is the gift of God to them that believe in God. 
It is of great importance, therefore, that a man should take 
care that what he does is good for something ; deeds of right- 



FAITH AND HOPE. 33 

eousness, of right towards all men, deeds of the law, and not 
what is good for nothing : deeds of piety and feelings of 
piety, which are profitable to no one, that is, good for nothing. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE GREAT FOLLY, INSOLENCE, AND IMPERTINENCE OF 
THINKING TFIAT IF WE DO SOMETHING, IF WE ARE VERY 
PIOUS, VERY INDEED, SINCERELY AND TRULY SO, WE SHALL 
GO TO HEAVEN ! 



The Pious Christians laugh at the veiy thought of the good- 
ness of God, that he gives heaven and blessing, that we do 
nothing for it, and have nothing for it to do. They laugh at 
the wisdom of God, which is foolishness to them, but it is their 
own folly and doctrine which is laughable. This old pagan 
doctrine never was the doctrine of the Jews, till that genera- 
tion arose and established itself in power over them which 
crucified the Lord of Glory, and deceiving and destroying men, 
brought their nation to utter destruction. Before that gene- 
ration arose, the doctrine of the people of God always had 
been to believe in God, to trust in him for deliverance and 
blessing first, and then by his strength and power to receive 
and have salvation, even righteousness and deliverance from 
iniquity afterwards. That generation taught that if they 
were very strict and austere in doing, then they were wor- 
shippers of God, then they were going to be blessed, or " going 
to heaven." Thus placing themselves and their doing some- 
thing first, and God afterwards. This is the very doctrine of 
the pious christians ; it is the same generation, it is not passed 
away, as the Lord Jesus Christ revealed, saying, " Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away till 
all these things be fulfilled." And it is not passed away, 
according as he spake. Heaven and earth are not half so 
sure and certain as he, the word of God, by whom they were 
made. It is now on the earth, ruling in glory and power 
over the earth, the religious world, and it has crucified afresh 
the Lord of Glory. This was not the doctrine of the people 
of God among the Christians, till this generation of Pious 
Christians arose. This beast was always fighting against 
Christ and his doctrine ; but the saints of God among the 
Christians zealously resisted; till now the beast has prevailed 
and slain both the witnesses of GocL This day, and the day 



84 THE pious christian's 

of the Pharisees, are the only two periods in all the history 
of the church of God in which this doctrine has prevailed, and 
been set up and established as the doctrine of the worship- 
pers of God. However desolate the vineyard of the Lord 
may have been at other times, this doctrine has never been 
set up and established in triumph as the undisputed doctrine 
of the people of God, except at these two periods, by a gene- 
ration which is one and the same generation ; a generation of 
the heathen, who have come into God's inheritance, and taken 
the houses of God into their possession. 

Nothing can exceed the arrogance, pride and self-conceit 
of this, the doctrine of the Pious Christians, of doing some- 
thing in order to go to heaven ; of being very pious, very 
indeed, and then believing, then receiving from God. What 
astonishing pride towards God, the Almighty God, who 
created heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is, 
that corrupt, sinful creatures of His, who do not do good 
enough for their fellow creatures upon earth, who are des « 
titute of righteousness even before men, creatures condemned 
and guilty before God and in their own consciences, by a law 
which they continually violate, and by which they are curse d> 
that these creatures should imagine that their austere, proud 
acts of religion and piety are of such vast importance that 
God is going to give them blessing and heaven for their 
deeds. The Lord Jesus Christ has described their true cha- 
racter, and the arrogance and contempt with which they act 
towards God, in the following words : 

" And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men 
of this generation ? and to what are they like ? 

" They are like unto children sitting in the market-place r 
and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto 
you, and ye have not danced ; we have mourned to you, and 
ye have not wept. 

" For John the Baptist came neither eating bread, nor 
drinking wine ; and ye say, He hath a devil. 

" The Son of man is come eating and drinking ; and ye 
say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber, a friend of 
publicans and sinners I" 

Such is this generation of Pious Christians, with their piety 
and doing wonderful things ! They think that God is alto- 
gether such a one as they are, one of themselves, a child at 
play with them. It is all an amusement to them ; they are 
not under the curse of a terrible and sure law which they 
are guilty of transgressing, and which cannot be broken, but 



FAITH AND HOPE. 35 

no, they are so good and so pious they are going to heaven, 
aud it is quite a play to them in the midst of death. They 
think they are sure of going to heaven for the sometliing 
they do, which, though it is a folly before men, and not worth 
anything to men, they think it is quite good enough for God, 
for they think He is like them, and is only engaged in sport 
with them. They think God ought to respond to them in 
return for what they have been doing ; they think he is 
bound to respond to them in the game of religion they play, 
<md in wliich they think God is playing with them, an amuse- 
ment they take up every now and then after the more serious 
occupation of money-making. They think when they con- 
descend to be pious, God ought of course to make them a 
return ; that when they pipe, He is bound to dance to them, 
and do as they expect that one at play with them ought to 
do. They are quite disappointed and astonished, that after 
all they have done they find no response. They call to God, 
treating Him as one of themselves, saying, "We have prayed, 
we have sung, we have done such wonderful things, we have 
been so regular to church and meeting, we have felt so deep- 
ly and sensibly, and mourned so much, we have been so 
lively and pious and piped so much, and yet you have not 
given us what we require, you have not equalled our expec- 
tations, we are not rewarded as we ought to be, you have 
not responded to us and done our wishes, you have not 
danced when we piped. It is too hard to treat us so ; we 
liave sung so loudly, and groaned so deeply, and played the 
game of religion and piety so well, and flattered you so 
greatly, that we ought to go to heaven, and have some mani- 
festation now of approbation of what we have been doing. 

They are the same generation which slew the Lord of 
Glory, and have arrived in their piety to such a pitch of ar- 
rogance, self-admiration and pride, as to treat God and His 
law with utter contempt, and to think nothing is good but 
themselves and their piety. Like as it was with their fel- 
lows, the Pharisees, their religion is a play in which they 
treat God as if He was one of them at play with them, ancl 
they are astonished to find that He does not do as they ex- 
pect, and respond to their follies and mummeries. "When 
they have piped, they expect him to dance to them ; when 
they have felt pious and been to church on Sunday, for doing 
all which things they would not on any account make any 
man their son and heir if he was to do them before their 
gates for a hundred years, yet they expect God to take them 
to heaven, for in dealings with men there is some reality, 



36 THE pious chhistian's 

but in the game of religion it is all a play. Tims lias the; 
Lord Jesus Christ, who knew their thoughts afar off, des- 
cribed them, and their insolence and folly. They will have 
their own way and their own piety. God's way does not 
suit them at all ; nothing is good in their eyes but piety like 
their own ; therefore, the prophets of God and the Christ of 
God do not suit them at all. When God sends to preach to 
them, that He requires righteousness in deeds and actions, 
not the show of piety, they will not hear that, they are de- 
termined to make their religious show instead; any one 
that tells them the truth of the lying hollowness of their 
piety is a devil. But when God sends His Christ, His Son, 
His very righteousness, that is worse still ; His doctrine that 
He doeth all for His people is wickedness in their eyes, it is 
not harsh, austere, and pious enough ; to them Christ and 
His people are quite destitute of piety • they do not disfigure 
their countenances, they do not make an exlnbition of out- 
ward mortification and abstinence. Thus to them, John, who 
preached righteousness, was a devil, because he exposed their 
hypocrisy ; and Christ was a friend of publicans and sinners, 
he was not respectable enough, nor pious and austere enough, 
lie did not join a church ! But though Gods way does not 
suit them, they highly admire their own way and their piety, 
and they are sure they will go to heaven for that ! 

So completely do they despise God, as to imagine that He 
does not know nor understand. They literally believe He 
has not as much common sense as they have, for they expect 
Him to give more for things than they are worth, what they 
never would do themselves ! They expect God to give them 
heaven for doing pious deeds, for the doing of which they 
would not themselves give any man anytlnng, or think it 
worth paying for. But they are mistaken, wise as they are. 
in thinking God does not know them and their thoughts, 
that He does not weigh their actions, that He does not know 
the real worth of their piety ! God shall laugh at them who 
think to go to heaven for doing something, for being truly 
and sincerely pious first, and then after that believing and 
going to heaven ; who think that if they pipe and mourn 
first, God ought to respond to them. "He that sitteth in the 
heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision ! 
Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them 
in His sore displeasure. Yea, and when God speaks they 
shall fear and tremble, their joints shall be loosed and they 
shall shake P Now consider this ye that forget God, ye that 
set up yourselves with God and above God, for God giveth 



FAITH AND HOPS. Si 

time to consider, and He forgiveth, He doth abundantly par- 
don. Blessed are all they that hear His voice, and consider 
and turn away from lying vanities to put their trust in Him 
only, who submit to God and receive from Him all thing?, 
and think not to pay, or recompense, or give to God by their 
doing ! 



CHAPTER VIJ. 

THEIR GOSPEL IS A SCHEME OF CONFUSION AND CONTRADICTION, 
WHILE THEY GIVE THEMSELVES LESS TO DO THAN WHAT MEN 
HAVE TO DO, EVEN THEIR WnOLE DUTY, THEY UNDERTAKE TO 
DO MORE THAN MEN HAVE TO DO, EVEN THE WORK OF GOD 
WHICH THEl r ARE NOT ASKED TO DO. 

Thus they undertake to^do, in order to go to heaven, re- 
fusing Christ, not willing to receive Him to do the will of 
God, by which His doing, which is the righteousness of God, 
they that believe enter in Him into heaven. Then having 
undertaken to do and to make for themselves a righteousne?* 
in which they can go to heaven, they refuse to do what God 
has commanded men to do, all the righteous and just deed? 
of His law, and set themselves what they think good to do, 
even no righteous deeds at^ all, but ceremonies and feeling* 
instead, going to churchy keeping Sunday, and such like 
things whichlare not even good to men. But such is the 
confusion, folly and contradiction in which their pride and 
wickedness has entangled them, that while they overthrow 
the law of good actions to be done to all men continually, 
and set up less thaiv God'sjlaw to p)e done, they at the sam* 
time give themselves and undertake to do infinitely more 
than all that the law of God requires of men to do toward? 
each other. They have less than the law to do, they need 
not' fulfil all its righteousness, and they have more than the 
law to do ; such is the wicked contradiction of their system 
and false'gospel. They teach that men must do the work of 
God.'^It is the work of God, by His Christ, to give repent- 
ance unto Israel. They teach that men have this work k> 
do, and they must do it, it is a deed of their will and power, 
if they will. Whatever is done, because it i? done, they not 
knowing any power cr God but man, believe it is done by 
man. Men" repent; they that [are of God| repent toward* 
God, but it is by the power and gift of God ; He it is who 
turns them and they are turned. They teach and insist upon 
4 



38 

it that they men do and have to do this work and gift of 
God. Men believe, they that are of God believe, he opens 
their understandings to understand, he gives them ears to 
hear, and he causes them to hear his word and believe ; it is 
His work, but they teach this work of God is the work of 
man, that he does it, must do it, and has it to do. Men de- 
part from iniquity, they that are of God believe in God and 
do righteousness, they cease to do evil and learn to do well, 
but it is by the power of God, by Jesus Christ his Son dwell- 
ing in them and doing all things for them ; but they teach, 
that this blessing, this righteousness to be delivered from 
evil doing and wicked works, is the work of man ! man does 
this work of the grace of God, of his Christ, man the enemy 
has it to do, and does it, it is his work. Thus, whatever is 
done, they know of no God and no power to do it but man, 
and they teach men that they must do that which is the work 
of God, and which God himself gives and does wholly and 
altogether himself, by His Christ. Thus they have less to 
do than what they ought to do, and also they have far more 
to do ! They need not do what God commands and requires 
all men to do, and they must do the work of God, wliich it 
is wickedness to think of doing. They destroy the law upon 
the earth, they have it not to obey, they have something less 
to do than to do no evil to their fellow man ; and then, filled 
with the spirit of lies and contradiction, they insist upon it 
that they have more to do, yea, far more than that which the 
law commands the earthly man to do towards all men on 
the earth, far more than their earthly duty, for they have to 
do heavenly deeds, the deeds of God by His Christ, yea, 
they wicked men who do not righteousness good enough for 
the earth and for men, have to do heavenly righteousness 
whereby to ascend into heaven and stand in the presence 
and grace of God thereby ! 

Thus they have confounded and confused all things, but 
God, by his truth and word, Jesus Christ, will restore all 
things. They are turned upside down in all things, it is the 
city of Sodom and Egypt, of confusion and darkness. They 
confound the earthly law and duty of the earthly man with 
the heavenly work and gift of the power and glory of 
God. They confound the duty and obligation of man on 
the earth with the everlasting gift and promise of God from 
heaven. They confound the gross animal goodness and 
sweetnesses of the flesh, of a beast before God, — a good- 
ness and beauty which, like the flower of the field, fades 
away in a minute, with the glorious, holy, spotless and 



FAITH AND HOPS. 39 

everlasting righteousness of the Son of God, the Word of 
God, which liveth and abideth for ever. It is dreadful 
wickedness and confusion ! All that God does, they teach 
proudly and haughtily that they do, it is something they 
do in order to go to heaven, while what they ought to do 
they think not in the least of doing. They confound the 
works of man with the works of God, the ways of man 
with the ways of God, and thus in setting up the feelings, 
experience and doings of man instead of the works of God, 
even His Christ, they set up man instead of God. 

They can do what they please ; it all depends upon them. 
They can bring down Christ from heaven to dwell with 
them if they please, for they can believe if they please. 
They who cannot even make the sun to shine upon them if 
they will, can make God to shine upon them with the light 
of His glory, in the face of Jesus Christ, if they will ; they 
can behold the glory of God, if they will ; they can give 
themselves life, eternal life, if they will, for they can believe 
if they will, it is something they do, a work they perform, 
if they will only condescend to perform it ! 

They deny all this ; filled with the spirit of lies, they 
deny all that they teach and believe, and they profess to 
believe all that they deny. But not only do they thus teach 
that they do and perform all the work of God, and of His 
glory and grace, but they go further ; they say and teach 
that they must do it, it is a law, a positive duty, a condition 
imposed upon them to do, and they must do it, yea, they 
teach that salvation is conditioned upon their doing- and per- 
forming the very work, and gift, and glory of God, and that 
they must do it, God's work is their duty. They overthrow 
all the law of God, the good conduct and just actions 
from man to man which it commands, and, instead of what 
men have got to do, they give them to do what they have 
not got to do, even the very work, glory, and gift of God. 
Thus they destroy men, setting them to work to do some- 
thing in order to go to heaven, teaching them to forget their 
real and proper duty on the earth, according as they do 
which they are blessed or cursed, according to their deeds. 
Thus they exalt themselves to do the work of God in the 
place of God. Thus sinful man, the man of sin, the unclean 
beast, hath placed himself where he ought not, and standeth 
where he ought not. Let him that readeth understand. 
They set themselves up above and before God, to do the 
work of God, while with all deceit they deny it. They will 
do it first, then after them God may do, God mav be God 



40 THE PIOUS 

after them, they consent to it then, and tliis they think is 
believing in God ! 

Thus, as the Lord God who created heaven and earth, 
and the sea, and all that therein is, revealed before of them 
by His holy prophets, the day is now come so long spoken 
of before, and the earth, the religious world, i3 literally 
turned upside down, having confounded, confused, and falsi- 
fied all things, turning all things upside down; for that 
which they have got to do they feel and teach that they have 
not got to do, even the law given to man, the law of all 
righteousness and good conduct towards all men on the earth ; 
and that which they have not got to do, which is given for 
nothing, and received by all the poor and needy as it is 
given, even freely, for nothing, they say they have got to do, 
even the very work, and power, and promise, and glory of 
God. It is unutterable wickedness and blasphemy ! 

Thus they exalt man and despise God — thus they take 
a way from God the glory of His gift, and set up themselves, 
filthy man, to do that which God alone does. Scorning to 
receive, that is to believe, they set to work to earn that 
which God gives. Thus they have fallen into the snare of 
the devil, even of their own pride, wisdom, and wickedness ; 
thus God rath rained down snares upon them, as He pro- 
mised He would do to the wicked ; for they are the wicked 
who trample under foot the law and word of God, despising 
its righteousness and righteous commands, not seeking after 
righteousness, who do evil to their neighbour, backbiting 
with their tongues, who cast out the stranger, the poor, and 
the afflicted, who slay the fatherless and widow by cruel 
words and conduct, who desire not to do the righteousness of 
the law, but do the contrary. The pious Christians despise, 
and have despised this law, and devoured, hated, and cast 
out all those who followed not with them in their ways, and 
joined their religious denominations, putting into their bag. 
They have not abounded in love towards all men, but on the 
contrary, they Will not suffer a man to buy or sell, and earn 
his living on the earth, if they can help it, unless he consent 
to receive their mark and take some number of their name, 
professing to be one of them. They have dishonoured God 
in dishonouring His law, doing evil to their neighbour ; they 
have hated God in hating their neighbour who refused to 
join them. Do they think God will leave unpunished those 
who thus do evil, while they say they ought not to do it ? 
those who thus act towards Him while they profess to be- 
long to Him and to love Him ? God has not left them un- 



FAITH AND HOPE. 41 

punished ; He has rained snares upon them, and they know 
it not, they are burned up with the fire and brimstone which 
they pour out of their mouths upon all others, they are con- 
sumed with terrors, their faces are as flames ; this is the por- 
tion of their cup. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE ASTONISHING DELUSION OF THE PIOUS CHRISTIANS IN TEACH- 
ING THAT THE GOSPEL PERMITS A LITTLE SIN, IN CONSIDERA- 
TION OF FEELING DEEPLY, GOING TO CHURCH ON SUNDAYS, 

AND BEING PIOUS. IT REQUIRES RIGHTEOUSNESS TO BE DONE 

FAR MORE THAN THE LAW. 

The pious Christians teach and believe, that provided men 
do the best they can very sincerely, and provided they are 
sincerely pious, going regularly to church on Sundays, then 
they will go to heaven, notwithstanding they do evil, and 
commit sin now and then, and do not depart from all ini- 
quity. Then they teach that this is the gospel and the grace 
of God, whereby God lets them go to heaven on such easy 
terms. This, though like all their other false doctrines, it is 
much disguised, concealed, and buried under words and talk 
about the grace and goodness of God, and the sinfulness of 
sin, and the beauty of righteousness, is a most deceitful, ly- 
ing, and damnable doctrine. It is to teach, in effect, that 
men will go to heaven by their doing, provided it is earnest, 
real, sincere doing, that is, in fact, the more it is their doing. 
This is to teach a lie ; it teaches, in effect, that men will go 
to heaven with sin upon them, which is to teach a lie. It 
teaches that the whole law of all their duty is not upon 
them, that doing a little now and then will pass instead. 
This is to teach a lie. They lead men to suppose that they 
are not cursed if they do evil, and as they do it, but. that 
being piou«, they will escape by grace ! This is to teach -a 
lie, and destroy men. They lead men to suppose, that since 
they are toO evil to do righteousness, there is no Christ of 
God to do it for us, it need not therefore be done, we may do 
the best we can, and then we shall go to heaven. This is to 
teach a he, a he denying God and His law, and denying His 
Christ, who, in compassion upon us, his people, whom He 
will save, since we cannot obtain perfect blessing, because 
we are destitute of perfect righteousness, came on purpose 
4* 



42 THE pious christian's 

to bless us, by doing all the will of God for us, even perfect 
righteousness, giving it to us, and putting it upon us, so that 
we are made the righteousness of God in Him ; and so, and 
only so, we go to heaven, even in Him, spotless, and without 
blemish before God, in Him, who is righteousness. 

The false gospel they teach consists in man's works, in 
something which he does, but it is not all that ought to be 
done, and yet by this he is going to heaven without perfect 
righteousness. Thus they teach, that the gospel, such as 
they have made it for themselves, kindly winks at a little 
sin, provided a man is very pious, very indeed. Astonishing 
deception! the gospe! admits of sin far less than the law. 
But they say, we are imperfect creatures, we cannot fulfil the 
righteousness of the law, and therefore, though we do ini- 
quity, yet if we are pious, we shall go to heaven by the gos- 
pel, which we could not do by the law. And this they call 
the grace of God ! Thus the grace of God, according to 
their lying doctrine, admits of a little sin, and that is all 
sin. Thus, as God foretold of them, they turn the grace of 
God into lasciviousness, and make Christ the minister and 
abettor of sin, and His gospel a code of wickedness, a law, 
but half of a law. Thus when they speak of grace and 
gospel, they signify a lie, for they have turned the truth of 
God into a lie, and the, words of truth are lies in their 
mouths, signifying only their own thoughts and inventions. 

The gospel of the grace and glory of God by Jesus Christ 
does not diminish from the law of righteousness, nor set up 
things to be done instead which are not deeds of truth and 
goodness towards all men. God forbid ! If it did so, it 
would be sin, for it would overthrow the law of righteous 
actions towards all men continually, which can never be 
overthrown. Righteousness is not only indispensable by the 
gospel, but it is more so than by the law ; by both it is in- 
dispensable ; there is no peace nor blessing without it, for 
the righteous God loveth righteousness, and abhorreth the 
evil-doer. But by the law by which men will be judged ac- 
cording to their actions, even a measure of earthly righteous- 
ness and good conduct done towards men will have its re- 
ward. When the Egyptian midwives saved the infants of 
Israel, God established their houses, and recompensed them 
for being merciful to their fellow-creatures, though they did 
not go to heaven for it. But by the gospel, some little 
earthly righteousness done by man now and then is not 
righteousness such as any cne could go to heaven in. If a 
man did all the righteous deeds of the law, he would not 



FAITS AND HOPE. 43 

have righteousness so that he could go to heaven. " By the 
deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified," and be 
righteous enough to go to heaven. It must be perfect right- 
eousness, without sin and spotless, truth in the inward parts, 
if we are to be blessed, and stand in the presence of God ; 
and behold His face in joy. By the law, earthly men will 
be blessed in measure and proportion according to the mea- 
sure of their conduct ; the wisest of them will have some 
sin to answer for ; but by the gospel, the blessing is not by 
measure, it is perfect blessing to them who are in Christ Je- 
sus, for their righteousness is perfect righteousness in Him, 
they have no sin to answer for, for they are in Him, and in 
Him is no sin, He has taken it all away from them that are in 
Him ; therefore, by the gospel, righteousness is much more 
indispensable than it is by the law, and he that not believing 
in Him does not receive Him, the righteousness of God, the 
truth, to be in his inward parts, filling him with righteous- 
ness, so that he shall not depart from God by doing iniquity, 
does not believe unto salvation, and cannot be blessed and 
behold the glory of God. 

Thus both the law and the gospel require righteousness to 
be done. How then do they differ ? They do not differ in 
righteousness, they are one and the same ; they both preach 
righteousness, and the same righteousness, for there is no 
other righteousness than true, perfect, and continual doing 
right, and doing no wrong. They differ only in the way to 
do righteousness, and in the doers of it By the law it is the 
work of man, the flesh, it is lus duty, his whole duty, for no 
wrong must be done, none can be done, without suffering for 
it, it is an immutable law ; but by the gospel, righteousness 
is the work, and doing, and gift of God, by Jesus Christ } 
done by him, the Word of God, in all them that receive Him. 
They receive him whom God hath sent, the salvation of God, 
and He doeth all righteousness for them and in them, they 
"have it not to do. They have nothing to do of tins great 
salvation ; they are made the righteousness of God in him, 
the Righteousness of God, entering into Him. He doeth all 
righteousness hi them, and departing from all iniquity, they 
are saved from the curse winch is inevitable upon all them 
that do iniquity, according as they do it. 

By the law, man is the doer, he has it to do himself, and 
it is not done, and he is not and cannot be blessed ; but by 
the gospel, God is the doer by Jesus Christ, his living word 
we have it not to do, we receive Him to do it, He does it, it 
k done, and we are blessed Thus the two are as different 



44 THE PI0XJ3 CHRISTIANS 

the one from the other as the doers are different, as God m 
from man. It is the same righteousness in both, for there is 
but one true righteousness, "which is all the righteousness of 
the law, and it is love, mercy, truth, and goodness, and no 
evil whatever, and it is the will of God. It is the same 
righteousness, but to man the law is a carnal commandment, 
he does not believe in God to do, he makes it a carnal com- 
mandment for him, the flesh, to do ; but the gospel is not a 
carnal commandment, not something for man, the flesh, to 
do, it is the power of God, his living word, Jesus the Christ 
of God, received in our spirits to do all for us, being the life 
in us, and to fulfil all the righteousness of the law in us. 
This is the righteousness which is by faith, it is the Christ of 
God himself, the Righteousness of God himself, the salvation 
of God, received by faith, to be with us and in us. To have 
and receive Him, the Living Word, is to have life, and thus the 
Scripture saith, " He that hath the Son hath life, but he that 
hath not the Son of God hath not life." 

Thus God having given a law requiring righteousness to be 
done, does not overthrow this law and suffer evil to be done 
by the gospel, as the pious Christians wickedly teach. The 
law, instead of being overthrown, is fulfilled by the gospeL 
This is the way to hunour, to magnify, to confirm, and estab- 
lish the law, viz., to do it ; and God will verily confirm it in 
all things, and towards all men, both to them that believe by 
blessing them with righteousness, and to them that believe 
not, by recompensing them for their unrighteousness. 

jlSTo ; God hath not set aside his law nor the righteousness 
it requires, not one jot or tittle of it, by the gospel. God 
i&rbid ! It abideth forever. It must be done. Because it 
must be done, Christ came to do it for his people. It must 
be done ; it abide th, commanding to do no evil ; to do all right 
to all men continually, surely avenging all evil-doing, its 
sword and fire pierces to the very marrow. Righteousness 
must be done ; law or gospel, it must be done. If a man 
liath not God, by Jesus Clnist, to do it all for him, and in 
mm, saving him from his sins, he must do it himself, and he 
is under the curse ; he cannot be blessed. God has never 
set aside this law of righteousness and right-doing, and good 
behaviour on the earth, towards all men ; not one jot or tittle 
of it can pass away; nothing can be substituted instead^of 
it ; no feeling, reading, singing, preaching, talking, no piety, 
or religion or abstinence or mortification of any kind, no 
doing even of a part of it, can be substituted for the whole, 
even for righteousness, and prevent the curse, the inevitable 



FAITH AND HOIS. 45 

curse, the wrath of God by the law, which is upon every 
soul that sinneth, according as he sinneth. God has given no 
gospel nor precepts of the gospel, nor experience, nor Sabbath- 
keeping, nor whining, nor groaning, nor rejoicing, nor feeling, 
nor doing, nor anything whatever, as a substitute for this law 
of right and righteousness to be done continually. To fulfil 
the righteousness of the law is to do the will of God, fur 
goodness, truth and righteousness is his will and his delight.; 
and Christ came to do his will, the righteousness of the law, 
in all that believe ; who receive him, the Word of God, to 
dwell in them, doing righteousness, and saving them from all 
siiL They that are of God, hear and receive Him whom God 
Iiath sent, to heal all their diseases and to bless them. They 
receive Him, the righteousness of God, and He nlieth them 
with righteousness ; He doeth it — they do it not, and have it 
not to do, and have nothing to do, and must do nothing ; but 
entering in Him, the Sabbath of God, must stand still, yea, sit 
still and behold the salvation of God ; how He saves from the 
mouths of the lions, and from all the power of the enemy. 

It is certain death not to keep this Sabbath. When we do, 
it is not God who doeth, and we perish. They that receive 
Him, receive the life to be in them, and they live ; they are 
the righteous in Him who live by faith. They that will not 
receive this righteousness, even Jesus Christ the Son of God, 
to do all righteousness for them, he doing it all, they doing 
nothing of it, standing still, ceasing from all their works, be- 
holding the glory of God, but who will trust in their own 
doing something, are cursed ; for having something to do, 
they have all to do ; (there can be nothing less to do,) and 
they do it not, and are cursed. 

How the Pious Christians have utterly overthrown and 
slain both witnesses of God, both His law and His gospel, 
reducing all righteousness to a single mental act, joined 
with a little feeling ! 

Thus the Pious Christians set aside all righteousness, both 
earthly and heavenly, both the law and the gospel. They 
do not receive Christ to do righteousness for them ; they will 
do what they think better than His righteousness, and go to 
heaven without Him. They will not do the righteousness of 
the law, which is blessing for men on the earth; they are 
doing greater things, whereby they will go to heaven. They 
have invented being pious, instead of doing the righteousness of 
the law themselves, and instead of receiving Christ to do it for 
them ; that is, instead of doing any righteousness at all. Thus 
they have overthrown all righteousness, having cast down 



46 



THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN S 



and slain the two witnesses of righteousness, the law of God, 
which testifies that it must be done, and the gospel of God, 
which testifies the grace and power of God in doing it, by 
Him whom he hath sent. 

They hare arrived to the perfect consummation of all 
wickedness, in this day of the consummation of desolation, 
haying overthrown the law and all its righteousness required 
from man on the earth, and despising Christ, the righteous- 
ness of God from heaven. Formerly among the Pious Chris- 
tians, the earth, those who professed the worship of God, 
before the beast which ascendeth out of the bottomless pit of 
the earth, which is the proud heart of the wise and pious re- 
ligious man, a pit of unfathomable depth of deception, 
iniquity and lying — before this religious beast had slain, as 
now it hath done, the two witnesses of God, there was some 
fear of God on the earth, the religious world ; there was some 
respect for his law, some regard for the performance of its 
deeds of truth, mercy and justice between man and man. 
They had a little regard to what God commands ; they had 
not entirely set up what man admires. There was some 
salt on the earth, among religious professors : the doctrine of 
the beast had not yet fully triumphed ; men, though in deso- 
lation, still trusted in God to save by his power. The doe- 
trine of this generation, even of the generation which has 
slain the Lord of glory, having crucified him afresh — their 
proud doctrine, that when they do something, and are very 
pious, they are bound to go to heaven — that when they 
pipe, God is bound to dance to them — this, their proud 
doctrine, was not yet altogether, as now, the ruling piety and 
the established religion of men. The sun and air, though 
darkened, yet gave some light ; the stars, the congregation 
and people of God, were not entirely fallen from heaven ; 
the moon was not yet quite turned into blood ; making the 
deeds of man, deeds of law and obligation, to be instead of 
atonement and cleansing by the blood of Jesus Christ. The 
powers of heaven were not, as now, shaken ; Satan had not 
yet totally overthrown the truth of God, and exalted him- 
self, in sinful man, above the throne of God, as a power first 
and before God, under the show of piety and evangelical 
Christianity. The earth still brought forth some fruit, not 
altogether despising the gift of God, the rain from heaven : 
and the saints of God, his inheritance among the Christians, 
though apparently few in number and in great desolation, 
and overcome by the beast, as they have all been, more or 
less, for forty-three months, had yet a little faith, hoping in 
God for his righteousness. 



FAITH AND HOPE, 47 

But now the earth is arrived to the utmost triumph of 
wickedness and pride ; it is turned upside down ; it is dis- 
solved ; the mountains thereof are moved into the midst of 
the sea ; its doctrines are the same as those of the sea, that 
is, of the world ; it is the doctrine of human power, philoso- 
phy and wisdom, which is atheism. The curse devours the 
earth ; it bringeth forth briars and thorns ; lust, covetousness, 
murder, overspread it in every corner, while they boast 
haughtily of the great things they feel and do ; of the efforts 
ihej are making to reform the world, and send forth their 
messengers to evangelize the nations, compassing sea and 
land to make one proselyte. The few men left have fallen 
from the truth like stars from heaven, following their own 
inventions, burnt up because of their iniquity, worshipping 
the beast and his image, glorying and boasting in their feel- 
ings and their sin. The word of God which he spake of this 
day and this generation, by his holy prophets, is fulfilled. 
And now as the Lord God liveth, who made heaven and all 
that therein is, and the earth and all that therein is, and the 
sea and all that is therein, this time shall be no longer. 

Now in their pride and wisdom and total departure from 
God and his truth, they have swept away and exterminated 
all the law of righteousness, and reduced it all, both all the 
law and all the gospel, even all righteousness, and all that is 
necessary to blessing and life, to one narrow, simple point, 
(joe single act of the mind and will of man, one small item 
of man's doing something. They have even reduced all 
righteousness, both for earth and for heaven, to their own 
performance of one simple condition and duty, if they pleas© 
to perforin it. Tliis is all they have to perform, and they 
must do the deed, for it is their doing, if they please, and it 
is all they have to do to go to heaven. If they only please 
to do this one thing, they will be blessed forever, and be 
saved, and have eternal life, and go to heaven, and dwell 
with God in glory, all for their performing this one condition. 
Thus in their improved christian religion, there is no longer 
any law of right and righteousness to be done and obeyed 
on the earth. Men have not to do right, that is, righteous- 
ness, toward all men, and to do no evil ; they have only one 
little act to do, a simple condition to perform and execute ; 
and if they will do this deed, joined with the knowledge that 
they are sinners, they will be saved ; they will go to heaven. 
Thus one of their teachers says : 

" Salvation is conditioned upon simple faith, involving a know)' 
edge of only a few simple truths. I am a sinner ; Christ died to save 



48 THE PIOUS christian's 

me from my sin, and God has promised to forgive my sin, on con- 
dition of simple faith." — Sermon preached before the Rochester Con- 
fertneeof Wesley an Methodists, by%Luther Lee ; New-York, 18-J9. 

Thus, instead of all the acts, and the many acts of right- 
eousness which the law of God teaches and commands to be 
done by man to man continually, which law must be fulfilled, 
and cannot be broken, they have reduced the whole to one 
single deed, duty and condition, to a mere thought and per- 
suasion of the mind of man, and for this thought, by virtue 
of this one idea, they are believers, and are going to heaven. 

Thus they deceive and destroy men. Thus, according to 
their system, the law is nothing ; it is done away with by what 
they falsely call grace and gospel ; and the thought and per- 
suasion of the mind of a sinful man, that certain things narrated 
are true, with the knowledge of being a sinner, this, which 
they call faith, will carry him to heaven without doing one 
particle of the righteousness revealed and commanded by the 
law, without which righteousness, performed on the earth, a 
man is cursed on this earth — without which righteousness Be- 
ceived from above, no one enters into heaven. 

That this one work to be done is the work of the dead 
man, of him who is a sinner, and dead towards God in 
his own conscience, they leave no room for doubt, though when 
it suits them they deny it. For it is a condition first to be 
performed by man. They write learned books to prove that 
it is an act of man ; that he can do it if he will, and give him- 
self life ; that is, believe if he will, if he pleases to do it. 
They say he must do it, and call upon him zealously to do it 
and go to heaven, saying, " Why will you not do it, and save 
your precious souls ?" And they threaten them with fire and 
brimstone if they will not do it ! They say " if a man himself 
cannot do it, if he pleases to do it, what is the use of preaching ?" 
Yet after all this, they have the effrontery to declare that they 
teach and believe that it is all the work and gift of God ! It 
is an astonishment, and a mystery of lying and iniquity. It 
is a part of their blasphemous doctrines, to say that their 
wicked deeds and dead works of dead men are the deeds of 
God. They, the enemies of God, sinful men, do the works : 
they urge and eall upon sinful men to be up and doing, and 
climb up into heaven 1 Ail is done by them, and must all be 
done by then], for it is a law and duty upon them to do them, 
and then, after all tins, they say it is God has done them! 
The very people who deny, with rage and fury, that God 
does any thing at all, who scoff at his work of righteousness 
by his son, Jesus Christ, by whom alone He works, by whom 



FAITH AND HOPS. 49 

He made the worlds — they who utterly deny, and refuse to 
receive the work and power of God, by Jesus Christ — yet 
after they have done their dead works, presume to say that 
it i3 God who has done them ! Thus God does, when they 
do ! When they have done, it is God who has done ; it ia 
his gracious work ! Thus they exalt, and place themselves 
first and before and above God and his Christ. God is not 
God to them. He does not do, it is they who do ; and after 
that, yea, after them, they having done, it is God who has 
done ! Thus the beast, the man who sinneth, the man of 
sin, is exalted in this day as the Lord Jesus Christ, revealed 
by His holy apostles and prophets. He, this evil one, is 
exalted above all that is called God, or is worshipped ; so 
that he now in this day, sitting in the temple of God, stand- 
ing where he ought not, having exalted himself to heaven, 
showeth himself that he himself is God! 

Thus they are going to heaven by one single solitary work 
and deed. For this their deed, they say, is believing in God, 
if they perform it they are believers, and then, of course, be- 
ing believers, they are going to heaven. And thus they are 
going there by a single deed of their own doing and pleasure, 
which is not even a deed of common earthly good to any 
human being -whatever, nor a deed of any good at all ! For 
if the things, which they pretend to believe, are true, how 
can any one help believing them? And what good, what 
righteousness does a man do, in knowing that he is a sinner, 
and in believing that which being true, cannot be denied ? 

Thus they have completely set themselves free from all 
God's commandments, and completely overthrown both His 
law and His gospel. There is no law to them to obey, they 
do not do the righteous deeds it requires to be done. There 
is no gospel to them, they do not receive Jesu3 Christ to do 
righteousness for them, and they have not got the righteous- 
ness of the law to do, therefore there is no need of Christ, 
to do it for them ! All, the law, duty and obligation oVer 
them, and ail the gospel they have, is merely to credit certain 
curious problems and theories of religion, which their pious 
hooks and pastors teach them, and then, if besides, they feel 
a few feelings, they have performed the condition on which 
salvation is conditioned, they have got all the requisite qual- 
ifications, they are believers, and of course they are going 
to heaven ! It is utter wickedness and lasciviousness ! Into 
such snares of the devil do men fall, when forsaking God 
and despising His word and wisdom, they are forsaken of 
God and given up to their own wisdom and ways, — when 
5 



50 THE pious christian's 

professing themselves to be wise, they set up for themselves, 
inventing rational schemes of salvation, to do great things, 
and go to heaven at their own will and election I 



CHAPTER IX. 

WHAT THEY DO WITH THE DEAD BODIES OF THE WITNESSES, 
WHOM THET HAVE KILLED. 

Such is their system, a system of deception and abomina- 
tion, deceiving themselves and all men, a system of respect- 
able religious wickedness, which it is almost incredible that it 
should prevail. Yet it prevails and triumphs and prospers, 
surrounded with the glory, honour and power of this world. 
It is most highly esteemed among men, but it is abomination 
in the sight of God. It is a system, worse than that of the 
sea, of the world, which they call atheism and infidelity. It 
is worse, because the men of the world, the sea, do teach to 
have some little honesty to perform, some virtue and honour 
to practise beyond a mere mental act, and feeling and singing 
and going to church. They, the sea, do say, that a man must 
practise some virtue, in order that it may be well with him. 
They have some little law of some kind, to do some things, and 
even a little law or correct principle, checking and controlling 
the earthly man, is better than none at all. But the Pious 
Christians have now neither honour, nor honesty, nor right- 
eousness of any kind to do upon earth, that is all works, or 
cold heathenish morality to them, they are engaged in doing 
something, far above all that, something in order to go to 
heaven, and they have only one simple condition to perform, 
and to feel, and sing, and be very pious ! Nothing is to be 
expected of them therefore, but what is wrung from then- 
fear of the world, their regard of what people may say of 
them, and their desire to maintain their respectability and 
standing in society. When this fear is removed, they care 
not how they act towards their fellow creatures. They only 
have one condition to perform, in order to go to heaven, and 
if they do it, and feel deeply and sensibly, that they do wrong, 
that is, that they are sinners, and sing lustily and attend 
meetings, and listen to long prayers and funny sermons about 
the immortality of the soul, and all sorts of vain philosophy, 
mixed up with old wives' fables, descriptions of terrible re- 
ligious feelings, wonderful conversions and cases of piety, then 



FAITH AND HOPE. 51 

they are pious, they Trill go to heaven ! At the same time, 
others of their fellow men, more virtuous than they are in 
their earthly conduct, more kind, merciful and just to their 
fellow-creatures, but who do not practise their austerities, 
their piety and exhibitions, nor join their churches, nor per- 
form the condition, are called by them infidels, and will be 
damned indiscriminately, instead of being judged as God hath 
spoken, according to their deeds and actions ! But they, pious 
men, are not going to be judged at all for their evil deeds, 
there is no law of God over them, it is set aside ! They are 
not under the law of God to act right at all times on the 
earth, and do no wrong to any one ! Not they ! they are 
under grace ! And grace is a law, containing one single con- 
dition to perform, in order to go to heaven, and to credit some 
curious scheme and theory of what they call salvation ! And 
this scheme is among them all a subtle* tissue and tangled 
web of contradictions, follies and wicked doctrines, denying 
all the truth of God, in Bible language, turning the truth of 
God into a lie, and is any thing whatever each sect in the 
wisdom of their learned men may choose to make it, and to 
promulgate it in pious tracts, and books and witty sermons 
from their pulpits ! 

What is singular, showing their extraordinary blindness, 
these very people, who profess that their faith is an act and 
work of man, a condition which he has to perform, and must 
perform, and which, as they say, he, the filthy one, actually 
does perform, — he believes he beholds the glory of God — yet 
these same people profess at the same time not to be saved 
by works at all ! but entirely by grace and the gift of God ! 
So boldly do they he. They even write learned books against 
others of their fellow Christians, to prove what they call the 
doctrines of grace, and that they are not saved by works, 
while they teach and preach that they are saved by one work, 
one single deed of man, one simple condition, and vehementlv 
exhort then* hearers to do and perform this one simple work 
and condition ! 

They have brought themselves to a pitch of perfect licen- 
tiousness, that they may commit what sins they please, and 
do all evil without fear, yea with boldness and confidence, as 
they are convinced they are going to heaven when they die. 
For when they do evil and transgress the law of God, they 
have only to go to church and hear singing and preaching, 
and swallow all they hear, that is, as they call it. to believe. 
Then they have performed the one simple condition, and then 
in their guilt and condemnation under the accusation of then* 



52 THE pious christian's 

consciences for sin, uttering the bowlings of the damned, and 
crying out or boasting to others, what great sinners they are, 
they have got the genuine experience, they are pious Chris- 
tians, they are true believers, and their sins will be forgiven 
them and they will be saved ! Their very sins are used by 
them to help them to go to heaven, and if they feel that 
they have committed sins, and suffer the condemnation of 
the law for committing them, this is a proof to them that 
they are believers ! yea the very condemnation of their pol- 
luted consciences, the sting of death, when it stings them, is 
a spiritual exercise, and the " gracious work of the Spirit : ' 
upon then hearts, as they blasphemously declare. 

Thus the law of God is nothing to them, repentance is no- 
thing to them, they turn not away from doing iniquity, their 
deep feelings of sin are instead of turning away from sin. 
Righteousness is nothing to them, they have not got to do 
righteousness. That which God hath said must be done, need 
not be done, that which Christ came on purpose to do, need 
not be done ! There is only one simple condition, which they 
have to perform, and salvation is conditioned on their per- 
forming it ! So that without doing righteousness or having 
righteousness, fulfilling the righteousness of the law, filthy 
men and women, full of pride, wrath, malice, hatred in their 
hearts, backbiting one another and all men, with their 
tongues, full of the condemnation of the devil, have only to 
perform if they please, this one little act of the will of 
the flesh, and for performing this they will be saved and go 
to heaven in all their natural beastliness and corruption. 
Thus they have totally slain, killed, set aside, and exter- 
minated the law and the gospel of God, the two witnesses, 
by winch God by his servants, at various times, has testified 
to men of righteousness, temperance, justice and the judgment 
to come, and also of mercy, grace and blessing, by the gift 
and work of His Son, whom He hath sent! These two 
witnesses they have slain, and have nothing to do with either 
of them. They have not the righteousness of the law to 
ulfil, for Blessing, that is, Salvation, has nothing to do with 
righteousness from God or from man, it is obtained on per- 
forming their one condition. They receive not Christ to fill 
them with righteousness in spirit and in truth, they have some- 
thing to do themselves, and they have no need of Him to 
bless them by righteousness, having set aside the law which 
requires righteousness. Thus they have neither law nor 
gospel, but have slain both these witnesses of God, as the 
Lord Jesus Christ revealed they would do. But what is 



FAITH AND HOrE. 53 

strange and wonderful, (for this mystery of iniquity is won- 
derful,) showing their astonishing blindness and deceit, hav- 
ing killed the witnesses, they have their dead bodies, the 
writings of the Scripture, which contain the letter of them, 
scattered up and down in all the streets of their great reli- 
gious city, and they venerate these dead bodies with extra- 
ordinary veneration, forming societies to scatter them abroad. 
They think there is great and magic virtue in them, and give 
them to be meat to the fowls of the air and the beasts of the 
field. They will not suffer then dead bodies to be buried, 
but distribute them abroad with great zeal, calling upon 
all people to eat them. Their brethren of the Sea, the fol- 
lowers of the first beast, bury these dead bodies of the wit- 
nesses and will not suffer the common people to read them, 
but they, the beast out of the Earth, (the pit of which, the heart 
of the pious man, is a pit of unfathomable depth of deceit 
and religious wickedness,) will not suffer them to be buried. 
They cry out fiercely and bitterly against the first beast, be- 
cause he buries them from the common people. But they 
spread them lavishly abroad, by Bible Societies, and cast them 
up and down all the numerous streets of their city, and send 
them about, as presents over the world, by their societies, 
triumphing greatly over them. All these things the Lord 
revealed long before, yea long before even the name of 
Christians was spread abroad, or known in the world. And 
He revealed, that at the end of the time appointed, the 
Spirit of life from God should enter into them, and they 
should stand upon their feet and prophesy, and all who hear 
shall fear, as well they may, for the voice of the Lord is 
mighty, and the Earth, the religious world, shall shake with 
fear at His word. " JVow consider this ye that forget God" 
and all they that are wise, will consider these things. 



CHAPTER X. 

HCW THEY BOLDLY AND WITHOUT SHAMB DENY ALL THEIR FAITH 
AND DOCTRINES, WHEN IT SUITS THEM. 

They profess and aver with their lips that it is not so, that 
they do not teach and believe that tins one act is all that is 
necessary. No indeed, they say it is false, for they teach 
that virtue and morality are necessary besides ! as if there 
could be any virtue, truth or morality of any kind, which is 



54 THE pious christian's 

not a part of the righteousness of the law of right, which they 
have overthrown and trampled under foot. Their faith is so 
wicked and foolish that they deny it, and after asserting that 
they will be saved if they do the one act, which they call 
believing, they then say that it is not sufficient, something 
else besides is necessary, a little bit of the law is necessary ! 
a little good conduct, a little morality ! as if all the law, all 
right conduct was not necessary, and imperative upon them, 
and upon all men ! Such is the faith which they set up in 
opposition to God, that they themselves are ashamed of it ! 
Therefore after teaching that " Salvation is conditioned tip- 
on " their one act of " shnple faith" they deny it and say 
there are other conditions of virtue and morality besides ! 
Thus when it suits them they deny what they believe, anil 
assert that they believe all the truth which they deny. 

It matters not how they deny their doctrines, nor what 
they affirm. When men have set up their own doings to be 
done, instead of doing the will of God, the justice, mercy 
and truth to all men, which His law commands, when they 
forsake God's law of righteousness, the only standard of right 
and wrong, following the teachings and opinions of men, they 
have forsaken God, and are forsaken of Him, and end at last 
by being turned upside down, believing evil to be good, and 
good to be evil, as the Pious Christians do in this day. They 
who cast the word and wisdom of God away from them, to 
set up their own instead, will say and believe any thing but 
truth, for they love not the truth, " their delight is in lies, 
they speak good words with their mouth, but they curse in- 
icardly." 

When men have thus brought themselves to the persuasion 
and doctrine that all the righteousness and right-doing of 
God's law is abrogated and annulled, and that all the law 
and conditions to be done and obeyed to obtain blessing, that 
is salvation, is merely to credit religious theories of their 
own, with a little feeling and knowledge included, and then 
they are believers and are going to heaven, they have arrived 
to the utmost pitch of wickedness, licentiousness and lasciv- 
iousness. With such a faith, falsely called faith, making a 
man bless himself by one small act of his own will and 
pleasure, giving himself salvation and eternal glory without 
righteousness, overthrowing the law and the gospel of God, 
all the flood gates of vice, crime and evil-doing a*e thrown 
open to wicked men. There is no law to fear and obey, 
by which men are commanded to do that which is right 
at all times, that they may be blessed on the earth accord- 



FAITH AND HOPE. 55 

ingly; there is no hope of the gift of righteousness from 
God that they may be blessed in heaven everlastingly ; 
there is neither law nor gospel. A man has only to perform 
mentally this one condition, to have certain feelings, and 
assent to certain dogmas, and it is all right, he is going to 
heaven, he will be blessed with everlasting blessing. Their 
protesting, as they vehemently do, that they do not teach 
what they teach, nor believe what they believe, are words 
of deceit and falsehood. Notwithstanding their asseverations 
to the contrary, and their protestations of their piety and re- 
spectability, they are abandoned men, given up to wickedness 
and crime, lawless. They will indulge with hardened hearts 
and seared consciences, as it is in this day, each in the vice he 
loves., and in any vice as occasion offers. Under such a vile 
and abominable system, setting the earthly man loose from 
the law which is over and upon him, working in his heart 
with its terrible curse, by which lie will be surely judged, 
according to his actions, — a system, honoured and disguised 
among themselves, by names to deceive, piety and vital god- 
liness, — all vice and wickedness, hatred, malice, and unkind- 
ness from man to man, is sanctioned and admitted. For evil- 
doing ceases to be evil to them who have cast down the law 
which reproves and avenges all such evil deeds. Men fear 
not with such instructions to indulge in the vices they love 
best, and justify their conduct to their deceived and perverted 
consciences by going piously to church on Sundays, looking 
with comfort and exultation to the zeal with which they 
perform the pious condition of salvation, and to the deep 
ieeling with which they greedily swallow all that is taught 
them by the deceivers, whom they hire to deceive them. 
The fruits of tins evangelical piety are abundantly manifest 
in the earth, the religious world of Pious Christians of this 
time, with whom virtue, justice and truth, all the righteous 
conduct of the law, are idle sounds, names of things which 
have no reality, which they pervert to signify going to 
church and looking pious. They have no idea of the exis- 
tence of truth ; and well may they doubt the very existence 
of truth and righteousness, for it exists not in the heart of 
him, the evil one, to whom they look for it, even themselves, 
from whom denying God and His righteousness, they vainly 
expect it to come. 

Can they be believed when they protest how strictly they 
teach all virtue and morality, who violate it all by their very* 
doctrine and faith, by which they overthrow the law of all 
virtue, morality and righteousness ? who boast that they axe 



5$ the nous christian's 

wicked, that is, that they are sinners, and whose religion and 
piety is to feel that they are doers of iniquity ! who say 
they are saved net by works ; no ! not at all ! and then say 
they are saved by one single solitary mental deed ! who then 
deny that, and say it is not true that they are saved by one 
single work, it is not true that "Salvation is conditioned up- 
on simple faith" but they also preach and teach, that other 
works are necessary besides ; who then again deny it and say 
they are saved entirely by grace and not by works ! It is a 
system of lying in every stage and step they take, a system 
of confusion and contradiction, of dishonesty and darkness ! 

Their deceit is beyond measure, great and deep. They 
rejoice and glory in their works of piety, and inculcate them 
on others with all zeal and earnestness, they understand and 
believe that they are slaved by them, and nothing else, yea 
they are shocked beyond measure at the thought of being 
saved in any other manner ; yet they protest they are saved 
by grace and not by works ! How can they be believed, who 
deny every thing which they assert ? Of such value are their 
works, that the more earnestly and solemnly they do them, 
the more sure they are of being saved. They think they will 
be saved, not merely because they do them, but because they 
do them so devoutly and so sincerely. Thus while they say 
they are not saved by works, but wholly by grace, yet the 
more it is a work, so much the mere sure they are of being 
saved ; and if there can be no doubt whatever of the sincerity 
with which the work is done, they are confident there can be 
no doubt of their salvation ; yet they protest solemnly that 
they are not those who trust in works, no ! not they ! 

They believe that their sincere and pious works are be- 
yond measure invaluable, yet they pretend that they have 
ho merit, there is no good in them. Their deceit and lying 
is manifest. They admire their works, and they must in- 
deed be admirable, since they bring salvation. They think 
they are so good, that if they do them they will certainly 
go to heaven ; they think they are so indispensable that if 
they do them not, they cannot go there, it is quite impossible ; 
yet they say, they do not think they are good ! there is no 
merit, there is no good in them ! Such is their deceit ; with 
(Me breath they say there is no possible good without them, 
and with the same breath they say they are not good ! They 
testify truly of their piety it is not good, and their sincerity 
in doing it is the sincerity of wickedness. 

The word and work of God is manifest in them, how He 
foketh the wise in their own craftiness. For these are deep, 



FAITH AND HOPE. 57 

shrewd, cunning men, wonderfully wise, fall of learning, they 
have been to college and got credentials and a title to de- 
ceive and destroy men from their teachers. Their brows are 
wrinkled with the furrows of profound thought and study, 
they have passed the years of their lives in studying divinity, 
and finding out a rational scheme of salvation. They have 
even condescended to prove logically that ihere is a God of 
some sort, and have been engaged in harmonizing and prov- 
ing the Scriptures in such a way that dead men may know 
God and all His truth if they please — and God hath con- 
founded them for their pride and insolence, and turned 
them upside down. They are taken in their own craftiness, 
they are snared in the works of their own hands ; they have 
constructed a system of folly and contradiction, so vain and 
go vile that God will make them an astonishment and a de- 
rision to men and angels throughout all ages ! a fit 
reward for them who laugh at the wisdom and goodness of 
God. 

Thus they are ashamed of their own faith and deny it 
when it suits them, for it stinks in their own nostrils. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE FAITH OF THE PIOUS CHRISTIANS STINKS IN THEIR OWN 
NOSTRILS. HOW THE VERY TRUTH OF GOD IS A LIE IN THEIR 
MOUTHS. 

In the enmity and pride of the heart and mind of man 
against God, they are convinced that it is not true that God 
is good, that he saves ail them that look to him and trust m 
him. He saves them by his Son, Jesus Christ, freely, gra- 
tuitously, for nothing, without their doing any thing, or having 
any thing to do. He gives them righteousness by Jesu3 
Christ, sending Him, His Word, to be with them and in them, 
saving them from all sin, cleansing them by his blood from 
all past sins forever before God and in their own consciences. 
He guarantees them from falling into sin and death any 
more, dwelling in them, filling them with righteousness, ful- 
filling all the righteousness of the law in them forever, so 
that they are righteous forever in him, and no longer under 
the law, that is, in the flesh, having righteousness to do, and 
in fear of death for not doing it. In the enmity of man 
against God, they will not and cannot believe that God is so 



58 the pious chejstian's 

good as to send such salvation, so complete and perfect, and 
that Christ is such a Saviour. 

Therefore hating the love of God, hating him for his love, 
not believing that he thus is good indeed, and that this sal- 
vation is to and for all that hear and receive it, whosoever 
they are ; and that they who do hear and do receive it are 
of God, are his sons, and that is why it is sent to them, and 
that is why they do receive it — that to hear this voice of 
love and glory is enough — " the dead shall hear the voice of 
the Son of God, and they that hear shall live" — yea, only to 
hear is to live — not believing that God is thus truly good to 
all that hear and hearken to his word, even Him whom He 
sendeth to bless them, because He will bless them forever, (it 
is His good will and pleasure,) they, in their enmity, make 
up their riinds that it is not true that God is good, and that 
He blesses ; but they insist upon it that they have something 
to do in order to be blessed; God's doing and work by 
Jesus Christ is not enough! To have and receive all 
righteousness, and every thing from God, is not enough. To 
believe hi God and to be saved by God is not enough, but 
they have something to do. God is not enough ! 

Having settled this, in the enmity of the mind of man 
against God and his love, they then say that to believe is to 
do something ! Yea, to have ears to hear, to have eyes to 
see, to have the mind, the honest and good heart of Christ, 
to receive the word of God, all this is man's doing, and to 
receive life, even to believe, is to do something. Having 
settled this point, that to believe is a work of man, an act of 
his power and will, if he pleases to do it, and that he posi- 
tively must do it himself in order to go to heaven, they then 
proceed to do the deed, and to beheve. For this purpose 
they study and hear arguments, and when they have ascer- 
tained to their own satisfaction that there is a God, and that 
it is very possible and not unreasonable to suppose that the 
Scriptures are true, because several great and learned men 
have also believed they were, they then condescend to per- 
form the condition, and to believe ! JSTow then, as soon as 
these believers believe, the very first act they do after 
believing, is to deny the very Scriptures they profess to 
beheve. They say it is not true, it cannot be true, that he 
that believeth shall be saved ; it is a folly to think such a 
thing ; something else is necessary, it is not enough to per- 
form this one condition, and do this one deed only ! Thus 
their own faith, which they have made and invented, stinks 
in their own nostrils, and they are convince -u \t it cannot 



FAITH AND HOPE. 59 

be true, that to perform this one condition 13 sufficient, in 
order to be blessed. But being wise in their own conceit?, 
they are too blind to see that they are liars, and God is 
true ; that their false faith is a He and a folly, but the word 
of God is true. 

They first turn the truth of God into a lie. For it is the 
truth of God, he that believeth shall be saved. This is wis- 
dom, this is truth. He that believeth in God and trusteth 
wholly to God shall surely be blessed forever, by the mighty 
power of God. He shall be saved from all evil, from all his 
transgressions of the law, by the Living Word and power of 
God, Jesus Christ, the son of God ; he shall be made righteous 
in Him, a doer of righteousness, having Him to do it for him. 
Thus it is true, he that believeth in God shall be saved, by 
the Christ, the mighty power of God ; nothing more is neces- 
sary than the power of God to do, for he is mighty to do and 
to save. What he does is enough ; it is not necessary, a.s 
the enemies of God teach and insist upon it, to add a little 
bit of human pride and virtue, to prop up the power and 
improve the righteousness of God. This word is the truth 
of God. But they take this truth of God and turn it into a 
lie, by teaching that the exertion and act of their own power 
and will is faith in God. The very truth, " He that believeth 
shall be saved," is a he in their mouths, for they teach and 
signify thereby, " He that performs a condition, and does tc 
work of his own power and pleasure, shall be saved!' Thus 
they turn the truth of God into an insolent and impudent 
lie. With such a faith, a deed of the dead, an act of an 
enemy of God, a deed of pride of a corrupt man, no one can 
possibly be blessed, but will only greatly add to the curse 
and condemnation already upon him. 

Having in the pride of their earthly wisdom and under- 
standing turned the truth of God into a he of the pride of 
man, their own he which they have made, stinks in their 
own nostrils. They cannot believe therefore that it is true, 
" he that believeth shall be saved ;" and imagining that the 
he they make is the word of the Scripture of truth, they are 
convinced, not that they are the liars, but that it is the 
Scripture which is foolish, and a he. With such a faith as 
they have invented, they cannot think otherwise, for when 
me a begin with a lie, they go on building up a system of lies, 
till they are inextricably involved in folly, wickedness and 
confusion. 

They know that their faith is a lie. Their own natural 
knowledge of good and evil, of right and wrong, which God 



60 the nous christian's 

has given to all men, their own consciences tell them it is a 
lie, that they who are under a law on the earth, a law 
over all flesh, working in the hearts of all men, to do all 
right and no wrong — that they who ought to do all right 
actions, and no evil, can be blessed by merely doing one 
little deed of the mind, one single condition, when they have 
an immense multitude of conditions to perform. Therefore 
their own consciences tell them their faith is a lie. But 
firmly believing in themselves, and not knowing God nor 
believing in Him, they immediately say in then hearts, it is 
God's word which is a Me ! Thus these believers, who un- 
dertake to believe, proclaim the word of God to be a he, as 
soon as they pretend to believe. 

As soon therefore as they have performed the condition, 
and done the work of believing, they are shocked at the 
thought that this, their faith, can save them — as well they 
may be — it stinks in their own nostrils, as well it may, and 
they hasten to mend and improve it. Therefore as then* 
own consciences tell them that it is a folly to imagine that 
they can be blessed forever, by this one act of their own 
performance, they conclude that if they cannot be saved by 
one deed of their own, yet they can by a great many other 
deeds of their own doing, all put together ! Then they say 
that to believe is not merely doing one act, but it is doing a 
great many ; it is being very pious, veiy indeed, awfully 
pious ! and then a man believes, he is a believer ! he will be 
blessed forever with God in heaven ! One single act of man 
is not enough to save ; they are fully conscious of that, but 
they persuade themselves that a great many pious acts put 
to that first act, will make a very good faith indeed. Thus 
their faith is an accumulation of human actions, and this 
heaping up of man's doing they call faith, that is, receiving 
all from God ! They call every thing falsely. They begin 
with an act of the will and power of man, and then go on, 
heaping up the acts of man, till they think they have got 
acts enough of man, piety enough to constitute faith, and 
thus to bless themselves, and go to heaven. God has nothing 
to do with it all along. Yet they have the impudence to 
say He helps them a little to do their wicked deeds, and so 
thev are saved by grace ! They make up for themselves a 
salvation which, from first to last, is of man, and boldly 
declare and protest that they believe the Scripture, "Salva- 
tion is of God." 

Thus they begin with man, making faith to be a deed 
which he does* a condition winch he performs ; then ashamed 



FAITH AND HOPE, 61 

of their own faith, for it stinks even in their own noses, as 
well it may, they go on zealously to mend it, by putting 
other deeds to it, and the more they mend it the worse ft 
becomes ; for the more it is the doing of man, the less it is 
the doing and gift of God ; the more it is unbelief, and the 
less it is faith. 



CHAPTER XII. 

HOW, AFTER THEY SAY THAT THEY BELIEVE, THEY DO NOT 
KNOW WHETHER THEY BELIEVE. THE WICKEDNESS OF THEIK 
ASPIRATIONS TO KNOW IF THEY HAVE A TITLE CLEAR TO MAN- 
SIONS IN THE SKIES. 

They are confident that if they put forth their power, and 
do the deed, that they can and do believe. They feel that 
they have performed a pious condition, the something winch 
it is their duty to do in order to ascend to heaven. They 
think they have done a pious deed, and are pious people for 
believing. For they have the folly to imagine, not merely 
that what they falsely call believing is a good deed, but that 
to believe indeed and receive Blessing from God is a good 
deed which men do ! Such is their vain faith, that as soon 
as they pretend to believe, they do not know whether they 
believe or not ; they trust they do, but they want to know if 
they do! They are therefore very anxious to ascertain if 
they are true believers, for if they are, such wonderful things 
follow, they are such wonderful persons ! For in their 
gross corruptions and self-conceit, to believe is with them not 
only a personal act of their own, but it is also a personal 
qualification which is highly desirable, because it confers the 
privilege and title of going to heaven ! They know not and 
understand not that to believe is not a good deed we do, but 
it is the goodness and kindness of God to us; it is his deed of 
giving to us permission, by removing the scales from our 
eyes, to behold his glory and receive his blessing. 

All they want to know is, are they believers? For if 
they are, then they are something; they possess a won- 
derful qualification which others have not ; they will be sure 
then of obtaining certain vague and great advantages and 
glory hereafter, which they call going to heaven ! It is a 
proud, selfish, wicked feeling of the corrupt mind, longing 
after personal exaltation and advantage. They care not for 



62 THB PIOUS CHRISTIANS 

God, they care not for righteousness, their desire and long- 
ing is not to do the will of God and to depart from all iniquity, 
but for their own personal glory, to be something, to know 
for certain that they are something wonderful, and that they 
have a title to become wonderful persons hereafter, and go 
to heaven when they die! This proud, evil wish for self- 
glorification with which the devil, entering into them/ fills 
and puffs them up, they regard as a pious, holy feeling, and 
that they are on the road to heaven, when it takes possession 
of them. Yea, they think the pride of the devil and the self- 
conceit of their corrupt minds, and their selfish aspirations 
after self-glory, is the work of the Spirit. They make their 
longings after this personal qualification the subject of pious 
hymns, and sing with ecstacy about their corrupt desires, 
thinking they are giving glory to God, singing, 

" When I can read my title clear to mansions in the skies, 
I'll bid farewell to every fear, and wipe my weeping eyes." 

Thus wickedness, with its wicked aspirations, is transformed 
into wonderful holiness 1 It is wickedness, for they care not 
about keeping God's commandments; they laugh to scorn 
the only righteousness, which is fulfilling the righteousness of 
the law, by Jes» Christ performing all things for us ! Their 
anxiety is only to know if they are something, and have got 
a personal qualification and title to heaven by being very 
pious, and feeling and doing enough ! It is the aspiration of 
selfishness and pride. It is the expectation of the wicked, 
which will perish forever, even the expectation of having 
every thing, and being very happy some time or other, with- 
out being righteous. They want to be quite sure that, 
without fulfilling the righteousness of the law, without any 
righteousness whatever, without caring about any, with all 
their lusts hot upon them, with all the malice of wickedness 
raging in them, they have got a title, and are going to 
heaven ! 

Their desire is a lust of the flesh after its own glory ; it is 
not the longing of a son to do the will of God. Only those 
who will do, that is, who desire to do the will of God, can 
know the doctrine of Christ that it is ©f God, so hath he said. 
They who will do the will of God believe with a little faith, 
longing after righteousness from God, though as yet it is 
far from them. They have no title; a believer is nothing* 
wonderful, and does nothing wonderful; it is God alone who 
is wonderful in his mercy towards him; he, instead of 
doing something great, being in the flesh and fleshly, does 
nothing but hinder his own blessing and peace. His 



FAITH AND HOPB. 63 

cmly title is in the loving kindness and everlasting mercy of 
God, who gives freely to all them that are hungry, in whom 
Christ has overcome for them the enmity of the flesh, and 
made them willing to receive the goodness and blessing of 
God. i 

It is a foolish desire at any time to know if we are chil- 
dren of God. They who long to eat the bread of life, have 
no need to inquire if God has created them to eat it. It is 
for those to whom it is sent, who hunger and thirst after it. 
The earthly man who is perishing for want, when bread is 
set before him, is not so foolish in his generation as the chil- 
dren of light. He does not stop first before he eats, and 
make the foolish inquiry if he is a live man, and if God has 
created him, and if he may eat; but he gladly eats the 
earthly bread which he craves, that he may not die. So we 
need not ask if God has created us, his beloved children in 
Christ Jesus, before the foundation of the world, to have 
mercy upon us and bless us, by redeeming us from under the 
law and its curse, even from the flesh and sin, to give us 
everlasting righteousness and blessing in Christ Jesus. If 
we hear, God hath created us his sons and daughters, to hear 
the voice of his love and to bless us ; we could not hear the 
word, it would not be sent to us, if God had not, before the 
foundation of the world, created us his sons in Christ Jesus 
his Son, branches of him ; for only they that are of God hear 
the words of God, " no man receiveth his testimony" 

But while we are in sin, in the flesh, and one evil man 
with it, it would do us no good to know that we were children 
of God, even if the law, with its wrath and condemnation 
in our consciences, would suffer us to know it surely. Instead 
of "wiping our weeping eyes," we should only weep and 
suffer the more. It is not enough to be children of God. If 
that were enough, Christ need not have come and suffered, 
for he came to redeem the children of God out of death, con- 
demnation and sin. If it were enough to be children of God, 
the saints and prophets of old need not have waited and 
longed after Christ as they did, day and night, with earnest 
longing. While we are under the law we are not righteous, 
for we do not fulfil the righteousness of the law. While we 
have to do righteousness ourselves, we have not God with us, 
doing it in us and for us, we are not in God, we are in the 
flesh ; we have not received the promise, and cannot receive 
the blessing until we enter into righteousness, the salvation 
promised, the Christ, after whom the saints of God among 
the Jews waited continually. We should not therefore be 



64 

blessed if we knew beyond doubt that we were children of 
God, while we are under the law, having to do, and there- 
fore not having God with us to do all, and therefore not doing 
all which it is good to do, and therefore not being blessed ! 
He who came down from heaven and placed himself in the 
most miserable and wretched situation of a man cursed by 
the law for sin, as we are, that he might redeem us out of 
this same miserable situation, — He knew His title clearly 
enough ; but with sin, even our sins upon Him, himself being 
without sin, he suffered the curse for our sakes, the death of 
being separated from God by the law against sin. It did 
not prevent the sorrow and agony which He suffered to 
know that he was the Christ of God, who was from everlast- 
ing. Knowledge increases sorrow ; he suffered the more ! 



CHAPTER XIII. 

OF THE MIMICRY, IMITATION AND COUNTERFEITING THEY RE- 
SORT TO, IN ORDER TO MAKE THEMSELVES BELIEVERS AND 
CHILDREN OF GOD. 

Therefore with sin upon us, and the Law burning us up 
because of sin, we cannot be blessed. While the corrupt 
man, the mind of the flesh, he who is an enemy and doeth 
evil, has dominion over us, and our spirits (though branches 
and members of Christ,) are one with him, and joined with 
him in the sleep of death, we cannot be blessed. While we 
are one with him we are sin, for we are the flesh, a man 
who is sin, for he doeth sin. Christ placed himself in the 
same situation, and was made flesh ; he was made sin for 
us who knew no sin, that He might deliver us from this 
corrupt man, and destroy the beast by His death, thus libe- 
rating our spirits from captivity to the flesh, from death and 
sin, that we might be joined with Him in a new union with 
Him, the old union, that is the old man, being destroyed by 
His death. Thus we are made righteous, being joined with 
the Lord; thus we enter into righteousness, entering by 
faith into Him, and receiving Him to enter into us. Thus 
we are blessed in Him in righteousness, for righteousness is 
blessing, there is nothing but cursing without it. 

But the pious Christians of this day, not seeking after 
righteousness and deliverance from all iniquity, having cast 
aside the Law of God, and therefore knowing of no right- 



FAITH AND HOPE. 65 

eousness to seek after, are only anxious to make themselves 
and to persuade themselves that they, the flesh, wicked men, 
are great characters, such as they vainly imagine believers 
to be. They suppose that certain persons acquire a title 
and qualification for heaven, and they are anxious to be such 
persons. In order to this, all that is necessary, they think, 
is to have an experience, or get religion, and if they have 
that, there can be no doubt they are the very persons they 
desire to be, they have the personal qualification necessary, 
they have the title, they are then believers, and of course 
are going to heaven. Thus they are persuaded by the spirit 
of Satan and wickedness that they can make themselves, 
corrupt flesh, children of God, and become His creation and 
people by their doing and feeling something, by getting an 
experience, or religion, as they speak, that is, in fact, by then- 
own work and will first, and without God, for faith in God 
comes after. It is the cunning deceit of the adversary to 
raise himself to heaven without receiving heaven and every- 
thing from God. 

Therefore they set up first their feelings, their experience, 
their piety, and after that they say they believe in God. If 
they have them first, they are undoubted believers after- 
wards, they have a title clear, they are going to heaven, and 
their piety and experience is the preliminary title. Thus 
they have something which is necessary first and before 
God, and if they get it first, they have all that God can give 
them, they are going to heaven. They have no need of 
God, for if they have the piety, the feelings, the experience 
first, then they are believers, they are the qualified persons 
they wish to be, they have need of nothing, they are going 
to heaven when they die. Therefore they set up their feel- 
ings and doings, that is, themselves first, and when they have 
thus made themselves all that they wish to be, and got a 
title for heaven, they profess to believe in God and acknow- 
ledge Him. It is an ingenious way which Satan has taught 
them of casting down God and His Christ, of having and 
getting everything for themselves without receiving any* 
thing from God, of setting up man, even themselves, first 
and above and before God. All this is done in a solemn, 
pious manner; it is religion, it is evangelical Christianity, 
they appear and pretend to be wonderful believers. 

All their anxiety, ail their toil and labour, is to make 
themselves children of God, or believers first, and then to 
believe in God afterwards. They will make themselves 
sure of going to heaven first, by doing or feelisg or being 



60 THE PIOUS CHRISTIANS 

very pious, and then after that they will believe in God. 
Thus the heathen, who have come into God's inheritance, 
set themselves up with artful deceit to be the children and 
servants of God, while they deny God the Creator, setting 
up themselves first and God after them. They resort to 
mimicry, imitation and counterfeiting, in order to go to hea- 
ven without God, and to make themselves believers without 
believing- in God. Such is the enmity of man's heart against- 
God ! He would not for the world receive everything from 
God, therefore he sets about contriving how to get life ever- 
lasting without God, the Creator and giver of life. They 
will give themselves life first, and then pretend to receive 
it from Him afterwards. It is Satan working with all in- 
r<-nr>nivable deception in the heart of man to fight against 

iney go about to create themselves and to persuade 
themselves that they are children of God without God, 
They hear and understand with their fleshly minds how the 
children of God in all ages have loathed and abhorred them- 
selves before God, and have longed for deliverance from the 
man of the earth, then deadly enemy, the flesh, to which 
they, being sons of God, were in bondage, being one with it, 
one evil cursed man. They read how they have longed to 
be delivered from this beast, the man of sin, to be circum- 
cised in heart, putting oif the corrupt man, the fleshlv mind, 
that they might be joined with the Lord. They hear how 
the creation of God being in death, and sorrow, and afflic- 
tion for sin by the law and its wrath over them, have groan- 
ed and travailed in pain, being in bondage, to corruption ; 
how they have cried unto God day and night for His right- 
eousness, His Christ, to deliver them, that they might enter 
into Him, even into righteousness ; how being in this death 
and condemnation, suffering with Christ as He suffered, aad 
dying with Him, (for this death by the law unto sin is death 
in the Lord,) they have cried out unto God, " I abhor myself 
and repent in dust and ashes ;" how they have said, " My 
wounds stink and are corrupt through my foolishness." See- 
ing and hearing all tins, they have said in their hearts that 
these were signs and symptoms of being children of Goo\ 
and that if they could only make these symptoms in them- 
selves and suffer, or as they speak, feel this terrible death, 
then they also would certainly be children of God, for then 
tijey would have all the signs and symptoms. 

Therefore not believing in God, hating Him and His love, 
His eternal purpose, His will, His gift, and determined to be 



FAITH AND HOPE. 67 

children of God without God, and go to heaven by their own 
will and good pleasure first, and not by the gift, the will and 
good pleasure of God, they have set to work to get and feel 
all these symptoms in order thereby to make themselves 
undoubted children of God. Tins they have done by get- 
ting what they call an experience, making in themselves 
these symptoms or feelings by mimicking and counterfeit- 
ing them all. Thus in the determined hatred and enmity of 
the heart of man, the flesh, who hates to think and acknow- 
ledge that God is God, that He only is the Creator, being 
resolved not to submit to God, willing enough to get good 
things, but determined not to acknowledge first the giver 
and author of them all, determined not to receive from God 
for nothing, they have become tinned upside down in the 
madness of their pride, and, as it were, putting the cart be- 
fore the horse, they have said we will get the symptoms 
first, we w T ill get an experience first, we will feel feelings 
deeply and sensibly first, and then after that we are children 
of God ! of course we are, there can be no doubt of it ; we 
have had the feelings, we have felt an undoubted experience, 
we have done as well as felt, we have been to church and 
been very pious, therefore of course we are children of God. 
After all we have done and felt, it would be a sad shame if 
we did not go to heaven after all this, for we have got a 
title, we have made ourselves believers, w-e have piped, we 
have mourned, we have felt so bad ! Thus they make them- 
selves believers without believing, by imitating and mimic- 
ing the symptoms of those who they suppose were believers; 
and then after they have done this, if they have done it 
well and have got a genuine experience, then they are be- 
lievers, and they think there can be no doubt of it. But a 
believer is a child of God ; and thus they make themselves 
children of God when they make themselves believers. 

They set up their feelings or their experience first and be- 
fore all, they look to them first, and if they think they have 
them beyond a doubt, then after that they are believers, and 
going to heaven beyond a doubt. Thus their feelings make 
them children of God, not God ; they look to them to be 
children of God, not to God ; and thus their feelings, even 
themselves, are to them before and first, instead of God. 

Having set up their experience instead of God, they 
preach experience and feelings instead of God ; God comes 
after as a secondary matter. They have long smce ceased 
to preach God and His Word, and His mighty power ; all 
they preach is their experience, and what they feel, and how 



^8 THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN'S 

deeply they have felt, and then after that comes God and 
faith in Him, for if they have the feelings and experience, 
they have faith, they have God, they have everything — all 
follows after their feelings, that is, after them. God and His 
Christ, even to do righteousness, receiving the gift from God, 
is altogether out of the question, for if they have only got a 
genuine experience, or got religion, as they speak, they re- 
quire no righteousness at all, a little morality for decency's 
sake is all that is necessary, they are certainly going to hea- 
ven, they are sure of it, for they feel so sweetly ! Therefore 
being swallowed up by these whoredoms and abominations, 
and raging with full confidence in them, they seek not after 
righteousness, they seek not God, they have turned their 
backs upon God and His Word, they hunger not after right- 
eousness to do the will of God, it is loathsome to them to 
hear of it, but they try hard and toil, and labour, and fret, 
and work up their feelings to feel deeply and sensibly, to get 
Convictions and an experience, to feel that they are hell-de- 
serving sinners. They spend their days and their nights in 
watching, recording, and relating their feelings ; they pass 
their lives in groaning and pretending to feel what great sin- 
ners they are, and they are happy and rejoiced if they can 
work themselves up to feel all the torment and agony of the 
damned. It is counterfeiting, mimicry, and vain imitation. 
They seek death but they cannot find it, and they desire to 
die, but death flees far from them. 

Thus they are turned upside down, and when they are sure 
that they feel condemnation for sin, that is, damnation, then 
they are quite sure that it is salvation, and when they think 
they feel death, they are confident that it is life. But they 
know nothing of what they mimic, and counterfeit, and la- 
bour to make, as the Lord revealed of them ; they know not 
that terrible deatli which is the chastening and teaching of 
God out of the law, which is not joy and pride and gladness, 
but sorrow, suffering and affliction by the law, a knowledge 
of sin and its exceeding sinfulness, the bitterness and agony 
which the children suffer for departing from God. It is to 
die in the Lord, it is death with Christ, it is suffering all the 
terrors and damnation of the law for their sins ; they cry out 
with Christ, with whom they suffer, though they know it not, 
and who suffers with them, "My God, my God, why hast thou 
forsaken me ? " They know not this death, for it is death, they 
seek it, but it flees far from them ! It is death ! It is nothing 
to seek after, nor to glory in, nor to talk about ! It is the 
terrible situation of a man separated by the terror of the 



PATCH A>'D HOPS. 69 

law from God, who is sinful and hateful for his sins, who 
hates and abhors himself because of them, and who is 
cursed because of them. It is a situation of wrath and death, 
of agony unutterable, from which the children of God, long- 
ing after righteousness, cry unto God to be delivered ; that 
they may put off the corrupt man who oppresses them, the 
foreskin of filthiness, even sin, by the death of Christ ; that 
they may enter into Him, into the righteousness of God, and 
depart no more from God, and die this death no more by 
sinning under the law, doing their own doings, sinning against 
God! 

Having worked up their imaginations to feel convictions 
for sin, and get an. experience, and having mimicked and 
counterfeited death, and all the signs and symptoms of this 
dreadful disease and death, they are puffed up and conceited 
beyond measure, swelling dreadfully, and make sure they 
are going to heaven, not because they are righteous, but be- 
cause they say they feel they are so very unrighteous, such 
great sinners. Thus as God hath spoken, they are turned 
upside down ! What God hath spoken is true ! They call all 
this folly and delusion, "getting religion, being converted, 
getting an experience, having a gracious work upon their 
hearts, being born again, being made regenerate men." This 
is with them a new birth, thus they convert the truth of God 
to a filthy, abominable lie. This death they call regeneration ! 
and this, their work of the devil, they call the work of the 
Spirit, a gracious work upon their hearts ! God hath revealed 
it all of them of old, and he lays it open now, for if man 
could find out these things, he would have found them out 
Jong ago. But corrupt man can never know that he is cor- 
rupt man, as a hog never knows that he is a filthy hog. They 
who know, and hear and hearken, are of God, they only hear 
and understand, and not they till they are awakened from 
the sleep of death, by the mighty voice of God which speaks 
unto them : "Aicake thou that sleepest, and arise from the 
dead, and Christ shall give thee lifer 

Thus their experience and their feelings is every thing, for if 
they have it, then they are believers, then they have faith, 
and if they have faith, they have all that follows it ! there- 
fore to have an experience first, is to have every tiling, and 
is before every thing, and is a substitute for every tiling. 
Therefore they nurse and watch their feelings and the vain 
filthy workings of their fleshly minds, and whatever helps to 
excite them, is delightful to them, and he who can best 
preach to work up their feelings and describe all the filth and 



TO THE pious christian's 

damnation of hell, is the best gospel preacher, and they are 
rilled with joy when they hear that if they have felt what 
he describes, they are undoubted believers, they are going 
to heaven ! they must not doubt it ! not to believe the he is 
unbelief! 

Thus they have confounded all things with the confusion 
of Sodom and Egypt. For whereas God loveth the righteous, 
and blesseth them who do righteousness by the Spirit of His 
righteous Son, which He sendeth to be in them to do right- 
eousness, they say no ! only those will be blessed and go to 
heaven, who have an experience, and feel that they are un- 
righteous, that is, who are unrighteous and doers of iniquity !. 
The great question therefore with them is, not are they saved 
from all evil-doing by the power of God by His Christ, not 
do they keep the commandments of God, doing no iniquity, 
but quite the contrary ! the great question, the longing de- 
sire of their hearts is, do they feel deeply and sensibly, 
that they are sinners, rile, filthy, hell-deserving sinners, men 
who do unrighteousness, who do not fulfil the righteousness 
of the law, for all such arc sinners. If they feel, or think 
they feel all this, they are happy, they read their title clear 
to mansions in the sky ! Thus when they feel damnation, they 
are sure of salvation. They have nothing to do with right- 
eousness, neither for earth nor for heaven ; they have nothing 
to do with the law or the gospel of God, by both of which true 
righteousness must be done ! All they have to do is to get an 
experience, this is getting religion, this is being converted, this 
is believing, this is being born again, this is going to heaven, 
this is every thing. And it is feeling condemnation by the 
knowledge and consciousness of sin, it is feeling damnation, for 
when the feelings are not a lie, it is real damnation. 

Thus, as the prophet spoke of them, they debase them- 
selves to hell, and then they are sure they are going to 
heaven. God foreshowed and revealed that all these things 
would come to pass as they now have done. The Lord 
Jesus Christ revealed all this of them long before, and show- 
ed how in these days men would resort to their feelings and 
experience of condemnation, and would try hard to feel deeply 
and sensibly the death of being sinners, and of suffering for 
sin ! God also showed before, that, all their seeking and 
labour to find the death they try hard to feel, should be in 
vain, that they know not, believe not, and understand not, 
that they are evil-doers, even sinners. They feel and believe 
quite the contrary of themselves, viz : that they are pious, 
good people, regenerate men, that is, men, but different and 



FAITH AND HOPE. 71 

better men than other men, that they are going to heaven by 
their evangelical doings, their piety and their feelings, while 
all other men are going to hell. Thus the Lord Jesus Christ 
revealed of them and their experience, saying : "In those days 
ihall men seek death and shall not find it, and shall desire 
to die, but death shall flee far from them.'" 

Yea, when they try hard to weep, and feel very bad and 
very much condemned, and to feel strong convictions how they 
are great and vile sinners, the death they seek flees far from 
them, they cannot feel quite bad enough, and instead of death, 
vain joy springs up in their hearts at contemplating them- 
selves, their emotions and their efforts, and at beholding 
what pious, zealous, nice sinners they are ! And this vain ly- 
ing joy and proud swelling emotion of their evil hearts, they 
call gospel experience, experimental religion, vital piety, holy 
seasons, and the work of the Spirit ! It is the work of the 
spirit, even of the seducing and deceiving spirit, the spirit of 
Satan, the spirit of Antichrist. For they confess not that 
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, and is in His people, doing 
all righteousness in them and for them. It is not His people, 
who do righteousness, nor who do good, nor who offer up 
sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, — God forbid — it is 
Christ who dwelleth in them, who is come in them in the 
flesh, performing all things for them. This they confess not, 
they laugh proudly at it ! They are opposers and adversaries 
of Christ and His holy doctrine, and that is Antichrist. For 
they deny that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, in His people, 
who receive Him, and that He it is, and He only, and no one 
with Him, who doeth righteousness in them ; they do it not, 
they rest in Him, they do nothing of this glorious salvation 
of God, they have nothing of it to do, He performs all things 
for them ! In their pride, they laugh at this. They laugh at 
God ! "God shall laugh at them, He that sitteth in the heavens 
shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision!'" 

When the Son, the Christ of God, came clown from heaven, 
and He the Living Word was made flesh, it was not Jesus 
Christ who then came in the flesh I Then it was the Word, 
which was made flesh, then the Christ came, and then being 
made flesh, He, that Holy One, was then first called Jesus ! 
Then first being made flesh, He was Jesus Christ ! the man 
Christ Jesus ! This Jesus having suffered in the flesh and being 
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, is now 
Jesus the Christ, who is exalted at the right hand of God, a 
Prince and a Saviour ; and this glorious Lord and Saviour 
Jesus, the Christ of God, cometh and dwelleth with Hjs 



T2 THE PI0HS CHRISTIANS 

people, fulfilling the righteousness of the law in them, per- 
forming all things for them ! 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Off THE NATURE AND CHARACTER 09 THEIR FAITH. 

The faith of the Pious Christians is altogether useless* 
They obtain nothing by it which they had not aiready got 
before. When they become pious, believe, and get religion, 
as they speak, their piety and faith places them just where 
it found them. They are with it just as they weie before 
without it. They have now got to do good ; but they had it 
to do before. There is no use in their piety, faith r,n 1 re- 
ligion, for it is doing something, and they certainly had that 
something to do before, if it is right and good ; such is the 
law over all men, whether they believe every thing or 
nothing. If they had done good deeds before they were 
pious, they would have been rewarded as much as they can 
be afterwards ; therefore after their pretended faith, they are 
as they were before. Their gospel is that they will go to 
a good place provided they do good, but so will all men 
without any such a gospel ; it will be good for all who do 
good, and those who do evil will be placed in a bad situation. 

Their religion is the same as the old pagan system ; it is 
the impure, defiled religion of all mankind ; it is what all 
men know naturally, to which they have always added a great 
talk about their gods, and their wonderful grace and good- 
ness in helping them a little now and then; whose help was of 
no manner of use, for they went on still in their wickedness. 
Their religion leaves them where it found them, in the same 
natural condition in which all men are by nature, under the 
law, condemned and condemning, cursed and cursing, having 
to do good for their own sakes, and never doing it. It is 
therefore useless, and their piety and faith, with all the 
emotions, enthusiastic sensations and savage austerities ac- 
companying it, and all that belongs to it, is delusion and 
folly. It is a curse added to the previous curse, an addition 
to human misery. 

What does it give them? What do they get by it? 
No tiling but what they had already before, even the privi- 
lege of going to judgment, and if they have done good, of 
having their just reward. All they obtain besides this is 






FAITH AND HOPE. ^S 

only the vanity, vain-glory and self-conceit of thinking and 
boasting that they are pious men, and better than other men, 
which is worse than nothing. When they become pious and 
get an experience and religion, and are true believers, as they 
vainly dream, then it is that their work begins, that they 
have to do a great deal and to be veiy pious, so that instead 
of obtaining righteousness, or any thing by their pretended 
faith, they only obtain the yoke and burden, which, had they 
known it, was upon them before, of having to do good, and 
to labour to get righteousness ! They have no better pros- 
pect of getting it by all their labour than they had before, 
for they have no God to give it them, they refuse to receive 
the salvation of God, His Christ, to do all righteousness for 
them, and they cannot receive the gift while they are labour- 
ing to get it without gift, by their own doing ; and all their 
pretence that they have got it already is a lie. Having to 
labour after righteousness the same as they had to do before, 
they are under the same condemnation for not being righteous 
as they were before, so that their faith is vain and useless ;. 
it is a lying and deceitful name, for it is nothing but their 
old and former natural duty under a false name. Thus it is 
with all who have something to do. They have indeed 
something to do, even the law of nil right ; they are in the 
natural condition of all mankind, which is a cursed condition 
by the law; and if they are not waiting upon God for his 
salvation, and seeking unto him for the gift of righteous- 
ness, they have no business whatever to take the name of 
God in then* lips. 

They are a very different generation from that which is 
passed away. 
Their faith is the beginning of labour and toil, instead of 
entering into rest, which is the reverse, the upside down of 
the true faith. In all things they are turned upside down. 
As soon as they become pious and dream that they are be- 
lievers, their work and labour begins, and they call their 
undertaking the work and entering upon the labour [being 
converted, being under grace and gospel, calling everything 
falsely. They imagine that to toil and labour after right- 
eousness is as good as getting it, and will do instead. 
Hereby they imagine the law is a lie, and that if they toil 
very sincerely to be pious, they will obtain the blessing 
without having the righteousness. Not knowing the truth 
of God and the law, that even the least measure of blessing 
on the earth is only to those who do right, that is, righteous- 
ness on the earth, and the perfect blessing of heaven is only 
7 



74 THE pious christian's 

to those who have the perfect righteousness of the law, even 
Christ, the righteousness of God, dwelling in them. By their 
labour to make themselves righteous by doing something for 
heaven, they also show that they are ignorant of God ; that 
they know not him ; that he gives for nothing righteousness 
and life, without money and without price. 

By dreaming that if they toil anxiously they will obtain 
blessing, they show their ignorance of the law, that not they 
who toil, not they who try to make themselves righteous 
are blessed, but they who do righteousness, are blessed 
accordingly. But in this day of desolation, deceit and crime, 
the generation of those who feared and toiled with earnest 
labour after righteousness is long since passed away. (Who 
they were, whether true or whether they were liars, whether 
they sought it in truth, by the spirit of Christ within them, 
or in the pride of the flesh, God knoweth, who searcheth the 
hearts,) that generation is gone, and we have to do in this 
day with a flippant, puifed up, conceited generation of great 
professors old bottles bursting with the frothy wine of 
Sodom, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own 
shame, bold, impudent, confident people, who are going, as 
a matter of course, to heaven, who believe that their feelings 
and emotions are all the righteousness that can be conceived 
of or dwired, that there exists no better, who refuse to hear 
reprooi and instruction. With whom, to have their feelings 
excited and to feel that they are pious sinners, is being true 
believers, wonderful persons going to heaven, and for them 
to feel it and for others to know it of them, is all they desire. 
The sun and the moon are darkened and give not their light 
They have no knowledge of the righteousness of God, done 
in us by Jesus Christ himself alone, and we are blessed. They 
have no knowledge of the righteousness of the law which 
must be done by us or we are cursed. To do right at all 
times to all men is far from their thoughts and their creed ; 
they despise the law; to receive Jesus Christ to do all 
righteousness for them, is far from their thoughts and their 
creed ; they despise the gospel. They have slain them both, 
and have neither of them ; yet such is their delusion and 
pride, they profess to belong to both, and to follow both at 
the same time, in a superior manner. 

They make God a liar, and destroy men. Their faith is 
not only useless, but it is great wickedness; They make 
God a liar, for they teach and affirm that the true faith, to 
trust in God to bless us, and that all who trust in him shall 
be blessed by Him, is of no use. They say tins when they 
say that if we believe in God, we still have to do, for then 



FAITH AND HOPE. 15 

we are as badly off as we were before. It is teaching that 
He will do nothing for us ; we have got to do righteousness 
in order to be blessed, just the same as before, and there is 
no Christ to do it for us. Thus they make God a liar, and 
say that what he hath promised is not true ; that he doth 
not save them that believe. For it is certain that if we 
have to do righteousness after we believe, we are in the 
same situation we were in before, and it is useless to believe ; 
we are not saved, for we are not righteous. Thus they 
destroy men, teaching men that if they trust in God, it is of 
no use, it is all a lie ; He does not save ; they still have got 
as much to do as they had before in order to be saved ; nay, 
they have to do more, to be more pious, more austere, more 
severe, more wretched; the same task and duty is over 
us as before, for not fulfilling which we were under the curse 
before ; it is still unfulfilled as before, so that it is useless to 
trust in God. Thus they deceive and destroy men, telling 
lies of God to them, hiding the fact and truth of His goodness 
in giving righteousness to the helpless, by Jesus Christ, send- 
ing Him to do it ^11 in them and for them, so that they who 
were cursed and miserable before, not having righteousness, 
are blessed, believing in Him, being made righteous by His 
doing righteousness, not having it to do themselves any 
longer ! 

They exalt themselves above God. For they say men will 
be saved by their piety, but not by the Christ, the righteous- 
ness of God, doing righteousness for them. If men put forth 
their efforts, their power and exertions, they will be saved, 
but they will not be saved by the power and work of God. 
They work, they do the work which saves ; God does not do 
it by his Christ, but they do it, and God helps a little 1 
Thus they are turned upside down. For their doings, their 
feelings, then- faith and piety is useless, and they say it is 
God's salvation, his Word, his work, which is useless, for it 
must all come after piety; you must be very pious first. 
Thus their pious doings are of great effect and value, but 
God and Christ are of secondary account ; they come after ! 

They frustrate the grace of God by their doctrine, for 
they make the death of Christ and his resurrection from the 
dead to be in vain. They teach that they who believe have 
still, as ever, got to do righteousness. Thus by his death he 
has not destroyed sin, and by his resurrection he has not 
brought in everlasting righteousness. He is not righteous- 
ness to us, for he does not do it for us, we have to do it our- 
selves. Thus they deny the Scripture, which declares, " If 
righteousness come by the law, Christ is dead in vain." 



7 6 THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN S 

They say it comes by our own doing, that is by the law, for 
there is no other doing to be done by men than the law. 
This law of doing is over all of us naturally ; it is our natural 
condition ; it is being in the flesh. Therefore if, when we 
believe, we are still in our natural condition, and have to do 
that which ought to be done, which none of us do, no, not 
one, then it is useless to believe. If we are still under this 
law, we are unredeemed. If He doth not deliver us from 
under it, by doing all its righteousness for us, so that we 
have it not to do ourselves, having righteousness in Him, and 
He doing it all for us and in us, then there is no redemption, 
Christ is dead in vain, we are still in our sins. 

The stupendous confusion and folly of their religious scheme* 

Thus their faith and piety is both vain and wicked. It 
only introduces them to the privilege of doing their duty, 
which they not only had the privilege of doing before, but 
were bound by law to do. If their faith was a condition to 
do some righteousness, it would be some good, but then it 
would not be faith; but it is a condition of Salvation ever- 
lasting, and it is a lie, it is no good ; for Goa giveth everlast- 
ing Blessing to whom he pleases, for nothing. 

Thus hath God given them up to their own folly, to follow 
their own delusions, who have despised the wisdom of God 
and trusted in man. The salvation of God by his Son, Jesus 
Christ, dwelling in us, doing righteousness for us, we standing* 
still, doing nothing, believing, was foolishness to them. It is 
foolishness to man ; he laughs with scorn to think that God 
should really save and bless without our help, without our 
doing any thing ! (But there are those who have laughed 
at the wisdom of God, in the pride and folly of man, who 
shall laugh for joy and gladness of heart at the good news, 
when G6d, having mercy upon them, shines into their hearts 
with the light of his word, his glorious and only begotten 
Son, the truth, giving them repentance and remission of sins 
and the knowledge of his righteousness and of his everlast- 
ing love towards them.) The wisdom of God was foolish- 
ness to them, and they were determined to invent a scheme 
which seemed to them more wise. And they have invented 
a scheme of stupendous confusion and folly. For God hath 
kept silence, and left them alone to do what they listed. 
They would not hearken to His wisdom, it was too foolish, it 
was not pious enough, and God has given them up to follow 
their own hearts' lust, and to fall into the pit of their own 
pride, even to set up and to trust in a system of the utmost 
folly, wickedness and absurdity, such as, has never been 



FAITH AND HOPE. 77 

known before on the earth among men. Professing them- 
selves to be wise, they have become fools, teaching that 
they do every thing, and God does nothing till after them. 
God does not give, he does not work, he does not save, he 
is nothing till they begin ; they do all and have all to do ; 
they lirst believe and give themselves life, it is something 
they do; they do good, that is, righteousness; it is their 
own doing, and yet Christ is their righteousness; they do all 
their deeds and God is an instrument, an instrumentality, and 
helps them to do them all and to glorify themselves by 
doing all ; they do righteousness, yet they who do good for 
heaven are poor, helpless sinners, and do unrighteousness, 
they feel it deeply and sensibly ; they are bad men, that is, 
sinners, and if they feel it deeply and sensibly, then they 
are good men, for then they are born again ; and they who 
are good, regenerate men, are very bad men ; for if they do 
not feel that they are, they are not good, regenerate men ; 
and they do wonderful things, and are going to heaven for 
being so pious, and yet they who do such wonderful tlnngs, 
can do nothing, no, nothing whatever ; and they are going to 
heaven, and yet they ought to go to hell, for they are hell- 
deserving sinners; they believe, and they are going to be 
saved because they believe, and yet they are not going to 
be saved because they believe ; oh no ; they do not say that, 
but because they do morality, and a great many other things 
besides ; and they do other things besides, and are pious, and 
if not, they cannot be saved ; and yet they are not saved by 
doing any tiling ; oh no, they are saved by grace, and not by 
doing any thing ; and yet they must do something or they 
cannot be saved, and therefore they do good, they are very 
pious ; and yet they do not do the pious deeds they do, no, 
not they ; they are poor, helpless sinners and can do nothing ; 
and God does it all by his grace ; it is all his gracious work ; 
and yet it is a false and ridiculous doctrine, that God does the 
work of righteousness, because man does it, and has it to do, 
and must do it, or else there is no salvation for him. It is 
the very confusion of Sodom ! the utmost wickedness, fully 
and contradiction into winch they, even they, have fallen, 
who profess in their hearts to be wiser than God. "Now 
consider this, ye that forget God;" and blessed are they that 
are wise, and do consider. 

Their faith is receiving: nothing, and having* nothing, and 

knowing nothing, and believing nothing. All they get by it 

is the privilege of the judgment, the privilege of going to a 

good place if they do good, which is a privilege all men and 

7* 



*78 THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN'S 

all nations of men have without being evangelical pious 
Christians, and without getting religion, or feeling an expe- 
rience ! It is the privilege of being certainly cursed in 
measure and proportion, as we have done wrong to our 
neighbour. For all who are under the law, and are not look- 
ing and trusting to God for the blessing of His righteousness, 
will be left to the law to be judged by it, and are certainly 
and inevitably cursed in the exact degree which their deeds 
deserve, without redemption. It is to be cursed, not to re- 
ceive the Blessing of everlasting righteousness by Jesus 
Christ, so as to know God and dwell with Him, being right- 
eous and without sin, in Christ, his righteousness. 

God will judge the world in righteousness, rendering to 
all men according to their deeds, and that there may be no 
mistake, that men may not deceive themselves, God has re- 
vealed, over and over again, what sort of deeds they are, 
according to which they will be judged, viz. ; they are good 
or evil actions, not idle ceremonies and religious flatteries of 
Him. It is only on his enemies, the adversaries of God, the 
enemies of his Christ, who despise the gift of God, who 
destroy men, teaching lies of God, telling them God does not 
give, He sells, that He wants pay like them, He wants re- 
compense, and they must positively do something in order 
to obtain blessing from God — it is only on these, the enemies 
of the salvation of God, evil men, who will not do righteous- 
ness themselves, and who refuse to receive Christ to do it 
for them, that God will rain snares, fire and brimstone, and 
a horrible tempest ; for these whom God hath known long 
before, He hath prepared and ordained the vengeance due, 
for vengeance belongeth to God and not to man. God is 
Mighty, who hath spoken, who also performs what he speaks, 
who knows how to abase, and will abase all them that are 
exalted and lifted up. 

Their faith and piety is worse idolatry than the eommon, 
more gross idolatry of the heathen, who worshipped gods 
of wood and stone. 

Their faith is not trusting in God and looking to Him, to 
receive all things first from Him, and it is not receiving any 
thing first from Him ; thus it is neither wholly nor partly 
believing in Him. It consists, on the contrary, in doing first 
a variety of deeds and actions, or in possessing, and having 
feelings first, and after all this, they talk of God; He comes 
after, and they say that if they do these things, and have 
the feelings, then they believe in God. After they have 
begun to be very pious and felt their feelings, all very 



FAITH AND HOPE. *TU - 

earnestly and sincerely, so that it may be a thorough work 
of man, then they are believers, then God is good to them, 
as they speak, for then they receive from Him, for then He 
gives ! Thus God comes after man ! Man does and gives 
first, and then God gives, and so what they falsely call faith 
is pure and naked buying and selling. They are merchants. 
They give, then God gives ; they do, then God does ; they 
are good, or pious as they speak, then God is good; they do 
something, then God is gracious ; and what they get, or think 
they are going to get, after all this piety, which they falsely 
call Grace, is nothing but payment for religious goods sold 
and delivered. Thus in all things they put their feelings and 
doings, that is, themselves, first and before God, and then 
are so blind and deceived as to say that all this is believing 
in and honouring God. 

To leave no doubt that they are first and before God, they 
teach earnestly that you must first do and feel, and that if 
you have not the feelings first, or if you are not pious first, 
you do not believe at all, you are not a believer, it is quite 
out of the question ; but if you do and feel first, that is, if 
you are first, then you believe; God and his salvation all 
comes after, there can be no doubt of it. This is unutterable 
wickedness, and it is the whole of their faith, piety and re- 
ligion. It is setting up the creature above and before the 
Creator ; and what a creature ! of all the creatures which God 
has made, there is not one among them all so deceitful, bitter, 
revengeful, selfish, spiteful, unmerciful, unkind, unclean, as 
this man whom they set up before God, even this man, who 
goes to church regularly on Sundays ! They look and resort 
to this man first, that is, to themselves, and to what comes 
out from themselves, and then afterwards to God; after 
this man comes God ! he does piety, gets religion and an expe- 
rience first, and God and eternal life comes afterwards ! Ihe 
Creator and the gift which comes from Him is after the man, 
and after what comes from him ! for the man goes to cixurch 
and is pious, and has an experience first, and eternal life and 
heaven, and the Giver of it all follows after this man, and 
what he does, and what he feels. They conceal and deny it 
all, and the zeal and art they use to disguise their real doc- 
trine, only betrays more the wickedness of it, that it is a 
doctrine to be ashamed of; and well may the creature be 
ashamed when he denies his Creator. 

They look and resort first to themselves and to that which 
comes from themselves, their feelings, experience and piety, 
and if they have them first, eternal life, that is Christ, comes 



80 THE PIOUS christian's 

after of course, for if they have them first, tbey are believers, 
they are true worshippers ! but they must have the piety 
and experience first, it is indispensable ! This is much worse 
than the common gross idolatry of the heathen nations of the 
world. They first looked and resorted to something which 
came from God, and said if they had that first they had God, 
they were true worshippers, but to have it first was indis- 
pensable ! But the pious Christians look and resort first not 
even to the works of God, not to wood and stone, but to 
something worse to themselves, to that which comes from 
themselves, to their piety, feelings, and sensations, and say if 
they have them, and show them, and put them forth first, 
then they are believers, they have eternal life, that is, Christ 
and God in whom is Life eternal! In thus setting up these 
things which come from themselves, that is, in setting up 
themselves, they are firmly persuaded that they believe, 
they worship God ! Man and his works, his feelings, his 
doings, his piety, are worse to set up first and before God, 
than wood or stone, the works of God ! It is worse to say if 
you get an experience, then you worship God, you are a 
believer, than it is to say if you get a log of wood you are a 
worshipper. For the experience is the lying deceit and self- 
conceit of a corrupt, wicked man, but the log of wood is good 
for something. And it is worse to say that the experience 
is the gracious work of God, than to say that the log of wood 
fell down from heaven, for it is a greater lie ; because the log 
of wood is indeed the work of God, and yet it is not fit to be 
set up first before God ; but the experience is the work of 
the devil, even of a seducing and lying spirit, winch confesses 
not that Jesus Christ is come in the ties}), dwelling in His 
holy people, doing all righteousness in them, for them, and 
instead of them. 

What it is to worship the bead and his image. 

Their trust and their worship, their faith and their religion, 
their piety and their experience is idolatry of the worst kind ; 
it is worshipping a beast, setting up the pious man first, that 
is, his feelings, sensations and doings, before God ! They 
make his feelings and sensations to be a preceding evidence 
of God, a substitute for God and faith in God ! They make 
the feelings and the piety to be before God and instead of 
Him ; it is before Him, for the feelings must absolutely be 
first, you must positively do something and have an experi- 
ence first, and it is instead of God, because if you have 
the experience, you have everything, even all that God can 






FAITH AND HOPE. 81 

give, you are a believer, you are surely going to heaven ! 
The experience is an evidence of all these things, it is an evi- 
dence that you have faith, and thus it is an evidence of God, 
and instead of Him ! 

When they set up themselves, even man, to do good, to 
believe and go to heaven, — when they set up this evil beast 
and slow belly, as he is and without disguise, to do good 
that is righteousness, instead of Christ, it is simply worship- 
ing the beast themselves, even man ; a creature who is in hi3 
proper place a very fine creature, and one of the wonderful 
and admirable works of God, a creature who, when fearing 
God, his Creator, and the law of right which is over him, he 
conducts himself decently, soberly and peaceably, has his 
reward, and is as happy as a creature possibly can be with 
an unfulfilled law, and its curse hanging over him. But 
when filled with an evil, proud and lying spirit, even with 
the devil, he begins to swell and burst with his piety, and is 
going to mount up to heaven and plant himself on the throne 
of God, with the law and its curse, with bitterness and death 
gnawing at his heart, — when denying God and His glory, 
His gift, His will, and His godhead, he c?Jls his pride, self- 
will and wickedness, evangelical religion and experimental 
Christianity, and says that his rebellion, his sensations and 
experience are Salvation and the true worship of God, then 
he, deceived and deceiving, is a beast indeed of iniquity and 
crime, and God gives him the just reward of his pride and 
self-conceit, by turning him upside down, and turning all his 
wisdom to madness and folly. To trust in this creature and 
in his pious labours, to look to him for good, that is 
for righteousness, which is blessing and salvation, is to trust 
in and worship the beast. But when they say it is not man 
they trust in, it is not man they set up, oh no ! it is another 
man, it is man changed, man altered, man made into a pious 
good, feeling, regenerate man, man under another name, man 
disguised, a sham new man, an imaginary man which they 
make in themselves and out of themselves, by feeling deeply 
and sensibly — then it is man still whom they trust in, but it 
is an imaginary man, an image to man which they make, as 
the Lord Jesus Christ revealed, it is the image to the beast, 
and they are not simply worshippers of the beast, for they 
pretend to have no trust in man, they are worshippers of 
the beast and his image ; for man, and their imaginary man, 
the regenerate man, the false new man which they make 
themselves to be and say they are, is nothing but their own 
pious selves, as they well know ! it is nothing but man ! 



8'2 

The Lord Jesus Christ, who only could reveal these things, 
has revealed how they would deceive men by the wonders 
of their piety, and say to them that they should make an 
image to the beast, that is, they should make a false new 
man, an imaginary man out of themselves, (vide \2>th chapter 
of His Revelation.) 

It is idolatry and deceit ; it is setting up something as 
indispensably necessaiy before God. Whatever is made 
necessary before faith in God, is made necessarv before God, 
for we look to it first, before we look to God. If it is man and 
his works, we set up man before God ; if it is altered man 
and his feelings, man pretended to be made into another man, 
it is an image to man that we set up above and before God. 
Believing by the power of God, our Creator, who has created 
us His children to believe and behold His glory, we enter 
into Christ, His holy temple, we worship God ; then first, 
by Him the great High Priest, we worship God ; we have 
access into His favour ; till then, if we are children, we are out- 
side in the outer tabernacle under the law, in death, not 
having received the Blessing, waiting for the salvation of 
God, longing after His righteousness, to receive the blessing, 
to enter into rest. After this salvation and rest, even after 
Christ who is this blessing and righteousness, the saints of 
old waited upon God continually, but they did not, as the 
pious Christians do, say that before they received the Salva- 
tion of God, they must have feelings and make a fanciful 
man inside of them, and then if they had him, and felt deeply 
and sensibly, they had salvation and blessing, they were 
going to heaven ! They did not worship the beast, saying if 
they did the works of man, they were true worshippers, 
and had the blessing ; they did not worship the beast and 
his image, saying if they had the experience of a sham good 
man, they had all and were going to heaven ! no, they 
believed they waited upon God, having nothing ; to receive 
everything from Him, they waited for his Salvation, His 
Christ, and they were blessed of God, as are all those who 
await upon Him and put their trust in Him ! They that 
wait upon Him shall never be ashamed, but they that wor- 
ship the beast and his image shall be greatly ashamed and 
confounded. 

Therefore whatever is pretended to be necessary before 
faith in God, is a false god set up and made necessary before 
God, whether it be gold or silver, or wood or stone, or 
whether it be piety, feelings and experience ; it is a delusion 
and a lie whereby Satan, the spirit of lies and of darkness, 



FAITH AND HOPE. 83 

entering into men, deceives them, working on their pride and 
vain glory, and leads them to bitterness and death, seducing 
them away from putting trust in God first, directly before 
all, and above all, and instead of all! seducing them to 
destruction, to refuse blessing from God, not to receive, not 
to' believe, but to look for blessing where it never is to be 
found, and never has been found, even in man. 

The Sea and the Earth, A theism, and Piety, are one and the 
same doctrine in this day. 

The Sea trust in man and his virtue openly ; they laugh 
at God ; yet they have a name instead of the name of the 
God of Jacob who made heaven and earth, they have a fool- 
ish god, a silly name to whose power they attribute all. 
They call the works of God u nature, natural causes, acciden- 
tal circumstances" The Earth, on the contrary, the professors 
of religion, the pious Christians, pretend to believe in the 
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to trust in Him only 
for blessing. They deny God the same as the Sea, (for in 
this day the Earth and its mountains, its religious sects, are 
carried into the midst of the Sea, as David prophesied, and 
are Atheists like the Sea — the religious professors are raging 
waves of the Sea, raging against the righteousness of God, 
done in us by Christ, as the Apostles prophesied.) But the 
Earth denies God with deceit and lying, putting all their 
trust for blessing, that is, happiness, in themselves, even in 
man, and in what they do or are going to do ; they trust in 
man as the power to do all, and to bless, just the same as the 
Sea. yet they pretend all the while that their trust is in God 
only ! In the eyes of both of them there is nothing more 
ridiculous nor contemptible than the truth that God He is 
God, He is the Salvation of His people who trust in Him ! 
He by His holy arm, His Christ, is righteousness and 
blessing to His Israel, doing all things for him, executing 
righteousness in Jacob ! They are both of one mind in their 
hatred and denial of God and their worship of man, and in 
this day they are united and friendly together. The Earth 
b almost willing to pardon the Atheism of the Sea and its 
contempt for religion, because of its devotion to man and his 
virtue, when it joins with it in preaching doing good ; and the 
Sea is willing to pardon the $arth for all its religious mum- 
mery, when they do not go quite so far as formerly, in 
denying the virtue, power, and godhead of man, and in 
believing that God is God indeed ! Thus the heathen exalt 
the worst, the most cruel and deceitful god that men ever 



84 THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN'S 

trusted in, even man ! thus they rage against God and His 
Anointed, and have cast away his bands from them ! "He 
that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have 
them in derision /" 

Their arrogance in undertaking to do the Work of God. 

They believe ! it is a pious deed they do ! a duty and 
condition which they perform ! They have not got their 
earthly duty to do on the earth, the righteous deeds of the 
law towards all men, which as earthly men they might do 
for their own earthly benefit, and would do, if they feared 
God and believed His law ; no ! but they have got to do 
God's work in order to go to heaven ! That which is the gift 
of God, His work, His promise, His special favour, His 
eternal purpose, His everlasting will and pleasure, to give 
life to the dead, to give blessing to the cursed, to give right- 
eousness to them who have none, to give to His sons and His 
chosen, to behold His glory, to hear His voice, to hearken to 
the words of His mouth, to have Christ, eternal life come 
and abiding in them — all this is their work and duty, all this 
is a deed they perform ! They actually think they do the 
deed ! that they believe ! yea they dream, they imagine 
that God asks them to do it ! They think theirs is the power! 
that when God speaks, when He says " Believe," there is no 
power in God and His Word, by which Word the heavens 
were created, and all the host of them, by His Christ the 
breath of His mouth ! They think God has no power when 
He speaks, the power is theirs ! they must do ! they must 
give themselves life ! they must do a work ! they must 
exert themselves ! They think God is altogether such a one 
as they are I that when He speaks He speaks in vain ! that 
He asks them to believe, and begs them to be so good as to 
believe and behold His glory, and enter into heaven ! 

They deny it all, they say it is not true, no ! They 
believe it is all the work of God ! But the truth is not in 
them ; they not only believe they do this work of the might 
and glory of God themselves, they not only say they do it, 
and have done it, but they believe they can also make other 
men do the deed, and labour hard to make them, yea to force 
them to do the deed of the glory, power and eternal purpose 
of God ! They entice them, draw them, threaten them, and 
coax them ; they whip them and scourge them with words 
of the dragon, pouring fire and brimstone out of their mouths 
upon them, if they will not do the deed and believe ! Nay, 
so sure are they that they can make them do the deed, that 



FAITH AND HOP*. 85 

they will not let them live on the earth, nor earn their living 
if they can help it, unless they join them and take their mark 
and labour like them, to mount up to heaven. Thus the 
Lord revealed of them saying, " And that no man might 
buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the 
beast, or the number of his name." For unless a man belongs 
to some one of their denominations or names, (for it is a 
beast of many names,) they will not deal with him, nor let 
him live if they can help it ! Thus they labour by constraint 
and force to make men believe and become pious. Yea, 
while they deny all they teach, and all they do, yet so firmly 
Convinced are they that they can force men to do the work 
of God, to believe and go to heaven by force, that they have 
laws passed in order to force men to go to their churches, and 
become pious and keep their Sundays ! Yet these men who 
resort to force and constraint, and fire and brimstone, and 
penal laws, to force men into their synagogues, and make 
them pious in spite of themselves, do speak lies with such 
unblushing foreheads, as to say they believe that it is all the 
work of God ! and that the fire, smoke, and brimstone which 
issues out of their mouths is all the grace and gospel and 
love of God ! 

Thus they, proud corrupt men, dead by the law before 
God, dead in their own consciences, condemned and cursed 
in their own hearts, not blessed, not blessing, boldly pretend 
to have eternal life abiding in them, to have God with them, 
even Christ dwelling in them, by their own work and doing, 
for they say they believe, they have done the work, they 
have performed a condition, it is a deed which they have 
done to bring down Christ from heaven to dwell in them ! Such 
is the pride and arrogance of the beast which ascendeth out of 
the Earth, a religious organization founded, not like the first 
beast which arose out of the Sea, upon the common natural 
doctrine of man and his virtue, but founded upon a profession 
of the very truth and doctrine of Christ, professing to believe 
the very power and salvation of God, and to be saved 
entirely by the grace of God ! a beast so deceitful that it 
looks " like a lamb," and professes in opposition to the first 
beast, to repudiate the doctrine of the Sea, the world, and 
zealously to follow the doctrine of the Lamb, the Christ of 
God, pretending to be saved by Grace and not by works. 

Such is their faith, falsely called faith ! They do the deed, 
they perform the condition ! they prevail upon themselves to 
have eternal life ! to have Christ ! to behold the glory of 
God! They study, they go to school, they read bodies of 



86 f *he PIOUS cheistian'b 3 

divinity, they examine the evidence, they weigh the objec- 
tions, they ascertain first whether it is really true that there 
is a God ! they feel some doubt about the matter, they 
spend some years in studying the scheme of redemption ; 
and then at last, with the prospect of honour, applause, and 
it may be a rich living if they agree to everything, with the 
certain loss of friends and reputation if they do not, they at 
least are decided, after many imaginary conscientious scru- 
ples and doubts, and then are pleased to express their 
decided conviction that the Scriptures are true, and that they 
highly approve of and admire them. They actually conde- 
scend to believe ! they are now decidedly pious, they read 
pious books, support the benevolent institutions of the day, 
write tracts and distribute them, teach Sunday school, get a 
reputation, make speeches at amiiversaries and Bible and 
temperance meetings, and never suffer any but sacred music 
and psalm tunes to be played on the piano in their houses on 
Sundays ! They have come decidedly to the conclusion, not 
without experiencing much inward struggle, to believe ! to 
mount up to heaven ! with the curse and damnation of the 
law upon them, in all the proud enmity of their fleshly 
minds, without being circumcised with Christ by death with 
Him, without putting off the corrupt man, him who is under 
the law, and cursed, without being spirits joined with the 
Lord, clothed with righteousness ! made free from corruption 
and death ! without having righteousness, even Christ to do 
it, that is, without believing ! 

Their faith is impudent, insolent sin, the deepest abomina- 
tion and crime 1 

Their faith, as they falsely call it, is sin, it is a proud and 
scornful denial of God, made by a worm, a fly, a beast before 
God ! it is the self- exaltation of that evil beast moved by 
the devil, who proudly exalts himself, his feelings, his expe- 
rience and piety first above God ! It is abominable siu ! It is 
a proud wicked act of a proud wicked man, a wicked deed 
of insolent wickedness, by which he, wickedness, pretends 
with deceitful looks of profound humility and impudent 
deceit to patronize God ! by which he condescends with an 
effort, to give credit and constrained assent, thinking he is 
doing wonders, to what he is not asked, nor required, nor desir- . 
ed to believe at all, nor to assent to ! He thinks he is doing 
wonders, he is doing something, he who is not asked nor invi- 
ted, nor desired to do anything ! he thinks he is doing good, 
doing a favour to God, he who scorns and laughs at the 
favour of God to man ! 



.FAITH AND HOPE. 87 

No ! he is not asked to believe at all ! God forbid ! " The 
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that 
hear shall live /" They who hear, it is not because they will, 
it is the power of God. They rejoice to hear, they rejoice 
to believe and live, but it is God who giveth them ears to 
hear, they are His people, and when He speaks, they hear \ 
It is the voice of Him who, when He said " Lazarus come 
forth ! he that was dead came forth" for the voice of the 
Lord is mighty. Lazarus was glad to live, but he did 
nothing, though he heard the word of God ; he did nothing, 
though he came forth from the grave ; he did nothing of this 
mighty power of God, though when he heard he lived. 
80 the word of God speaks to us in our misery, our death, 
our sin, as we lay in the grave of misery, condemnation, and 
cursing ! the word comes to us, it is sent to bless us ; we 
hear ! yea, only to hear is to live, " they that shall hear shall 
live" Lazarus was not asked nor invited to hear, nor entreated 
to exert himself, and put forth his powers and labour, and 
do something, and try to come forth from the grave, but 
when He spake, the dead arose ; so they that are of God, 
dead under the law in cursing, misery and sin, hear the 
words of God, receive His Word, His righteousness, and 
live ! 

Also as we are not invited nor requested to condescend to 
believe the gospel, so no man is invited nor requested to be 
bo good as to do good, nor to do anything whatever. No ! 
he is positively commanded to do his duty, to do no evil ; it 
is imperative upon him, he must do his duty, there is no invi- 
tation, no begging about it at all, a law is not an invitation ; 
he must obey it, he must do right, and no wrong, or woe 
unto him for every disobedience. Wisdom may sometimes 
set before men what is good for them, and call upon them to 
hearken, (and the sons of wisdom will hearken,) but it is for 
their own sakes, for their own benefit and advantage, not 
that they may think they patronize God, and are going to 
heaven because they tremble at the halter ! 

Thus they do the deed they perform, the work and condi- 
tion, and think they are doing God service, by consenting to 
agree to what cannot be denied, to which, moreover, they 
are not asked nor desired to agree. Their pretended faith is 
mere mercenary expediency ; they say, " suppose these things 
are not true, yet it can do no harm to believe them, but if 
they should happen to be true, why then, we are on the safe 
side in believing them." So they believe because it can do 
no harm, and with the understanding, that what they believe 



88 THE pious christian's 

is very probably a lie ! and then being thus convinced 
and converted, they are pleased to believe, then they are 
believers and going to heaven ! Thus, in case there should 
happen to be any god besides themselves, as in that event, 
they intend to condescend to go and dwell with Him when 
they die, they therefore condescend to believe ! Then they 
join a church and become pious, they are religious, they pay 
respect to religion and help the cause, and if they are not 
eminently pious, at all events, they are piously disposed, 
they set a good example, and go regularly to church on 
Sundays, and there is no doubt they will go to heaven when 
they die ! Their faith, their piety, their religion, a deed of 
the dead, deeds of the pride and self-will of corrupt and evil 
man, an idea of his evil mind, an excitement of his sensual 
bloated feelings, — the effect of fear and terror, of his selfish 
hopes, and proud expectations, — the secret operation of 
ambition and emulation, — a means of acquiring respectability 
in the world, of forming connections, and obtaining a liveli- 
hood — this faith and piety, this wickedness, they wickedly 
call believing in God ! and for this they are going to heaven ! 
It is insolence and unparalleled impudence ! It is the most 
atrocious wickedness ! It is sin, insolent, impudent sin, of the 
deepest, blackest abomination and crime ! 

Yea, verily, as the Lord liveth, who made heaven and earth 
and the sea, and all that therein is, the Christians of this 
time are the heathen of whom God spake by His holy pro- 
phet, who have come into God's inheritance, His Holy 
Temple they have denied, they have laid Jerusalem in heaps, 
they have trampled the holy city, the saints of God, under 
their feet for 1260 years, having overcome them, they have 
cast down the truth, they have now in this day made a per- 
fect consummation of desolation. And they dare to take the 
holy vessels of God's holy temple, the words of His scrip- 
ture and truth, and make them vehicles to convey and teach 
and preach to men their damnable doctrines and philosophy. 
Using the very words of the Scriptures in their philosophi- 
cal pride and wisdom to enforce, and signify, and preach 
their own wicked doctrines and vain religious imaginations I 
Using them, as it were goblets, to hold the wine of Sodom 
and the grapes of Gomorrah, with which they drink them- 
selves drunk in the filthy orgies of an earthly, impure and 
defiled religion, drinking thereout to their gods, and to man, 
their chief god, that evil and violent beast whom they hon- 
our and worship, even themselves, exalting him above all 
that is called God, or that is worshipped. But as God sud- 






FAITH AND HOPE. 89 

denly smote the vain king, who was an image and type of 
their more spiritual and more refined, more abominable pro- 
fanations, so He will smite them by the word of His mouth, 
and purge His sanctuary, His saints and holy people, of their 
vile abominations. They shall melt away like as wax melt- 
eth before the fire, they shall flee like chaff before the wind, 
at the voice of the God of Israel, when He ariseth in His 
wrath to shake terribly the Earth, the religious world. 

They deny the whole foundation of their own system of 
Christianity in setting man, that is, themselves, to do good. 

In denying the truth and doctrine of God, that it is Jesus 
Christ who is come in the flesh, dwelling in all them whoso- 
ever they are who believe, who gladly receive the salvation 
of God, — in denying that He it is who doeth righteousness 
in all His people — (they not doing it, He doing all things for 
them,) — in denying this, the doctrine of God and of Christ, 
they deny the whole substance, and the very foundation of 
that eternal mercy, truth, and salvation of God, out of the 
dead letter of the revelation of winch they, with their fleshly 
minds, and in the pride of their earthly wisdom, not having 
the Spirit, have invented that earthly system of confusion, 
abomination, and wickedness of human action, which they 
call Christianity and the Christian religion. Since they will 
not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, doing 
righteousness in him that hath and receiveth Him, how can 
they pretend to confess that God is in Jesus Christ, His holy 
temple and habitation, doing all His works in and by Him i 
Since it is God who doeth all His works, by His Holy One 
in whom He dwells, how much more is it Christ who doeth 
all things for and in His people, the lost sheep, the people of 
His pasture, whom he hath purchased and redeemed, and in 
whom, giving them to believe in His name, (putting off from 
them the sinful man, the mind of the flesh, by His own death 
for them in the flesh,) He condescends to come and dwell in 
them. In denying that He, Jesus Christ, by His Holy Spirit, 
the Spirit of God, dwells in His people, they deny that God 
dwells in Jesus Christ. How can they pretend to believe 
the foundation of all, viz., that God is manifest in the hea- 
venly man, His Son Jesus Christ, and that He is one with 
God, when they deny that Jesus Christ comes and dwells in 
His people, and that they are one with Him ? How can 
they believe that the works which Christ doeth, it is not He 
that doeth them, but God who dwelleth in Him, when they 
deny that the works which they do, who believe, it is not 
8* 



90 THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN S 

they who do them, but Christ who dwelleth in them ? In 
denying the one they deny the other, for it is one truth and 
one doctrine, as Christ saith, " / in them, and Thou in Me? 
They who confess not the one, that it is Jesus Clrrist in all 
them that believe who doeth all things in them, " / in the?n" 
cannot confess nor believe that God is manifest in Jesus 
Christ, doing all His works by Him His Word, "Thou in 
Me? Since it is incredible that Jesus Christ should be in 
His people, / in them, it must be also incredible to them that 
God is in Jesus Christ, Thou in Me. If the coming of the 
Lord from heaven, the heavenly man, Jesus Christ, to be in 
His people, dwelling in them, doing righteousness in them, 
is, as they pretend to say it is, merely metaphorical, poeti- 
cal, and signifying nothing, then also they must believe that 
the manifestation of God in Christ, and His being and dwel- 
ling in Him His Holy Temple, is also merely metaphorical, 
poetical, and signifying nothing ! and so that all the truth of 
God, all truth, is merely metaphorical, and has no reality and 
existence ; and so the terrible truth, the awful reality of our 
sin, our misery, our suffering and fear, is all poetical, and has 
no reality ! mere poetry, signifying nothing ! Thus, in deny- 
ing the righteousness of God, Jesus Christ, who is righteous- 
ness, that is, doeth righteousness for His people, (for there is 
no other possible righteousness but doing righteousness,) they 
deny the whole foundation of that eternal truth and glory 
out of the letter of the revelation of which, (a dead letter 
to the dead,) they have patched up and invented, in the 
pride of their vain fleshly wisdom, that compound of human 
confusion, blasphemy, wickedness, and contradiction, which 
they call in this day evangelical piety and Christian religion ! 

The blasphemy of the doctrine of the pious Christians, in 
teaching that they will be saved because they believe. 

Their faith is wickedness ! what pride and wickedness for 
sinful man, dead towards God in sin and by the law, under 
wrath and the curse on hi3 conscience for committing sin, to 
think of going to heaven at all ! (how can the cursed be bless- 
ed unless they cease to be cursed ? how can a man in sin be 
blessed ? lie must be without sin to be blessed ; that is an in- 
evitable condition ! and how can a man be without sin who 
has not perfect righteousness ? and how can a man have per- 
fect righteousness who has to do righteousness himself ?) But 
what pride and wickedness for men, cursed by the law, dead 
and separated from God by sin, to dream of going to dwell in 
everlasting bliss and glory with God, for doing one act of the 



FAITH AND HOPE. 91 

vain, corrupt mind, one single deed, which they call believ- 
ing ! a deed which is the mere mental persuasion of a man, 
nay, his fear that certain things at which his flesh trembles are 
true, or possibly may be true — a deed which is the mere 
imagination and thought of the mind of sin, a vague uncer- 
tain idea, and then a mad ecstacy of proud delirious joy, built 
upon the pleasure of thinking that he has done the pious 
deed, that he believes ! a vain joy and proud elevation of the 
mind at the contemplation of what he has done ! because he 
imagines he is going to be something wonderful, for thinking 
the thought and doing the pious act ! — a wicked joy excited 
in the wicked mind at thinking what a wonderful creature he 
is in patronizing the Scriptures, and condescending to believe ! 
What pride and wickedness for a man under the wrath of 
God for doing evil, to think of going to dwell with God for 
doing such a deed as this, and feeling the feelings which flow 
from it ! This deed which they do, and the feelings, the joy, 
the exultation, the proud hopes they build upon it, they call 
faith, religion, love, experience, and having the Spirit ! As- 
tonishing falsehood, to call such wickedness and delusion by 
such names ! astonishing delusion ! to believe they will go 
to heaven for being puffed up with such drunken joys, be- 
cause they do and feel such things ! Yet they are confident 
they will certainly be saved, because they have done this 
deed, and have performed a pious condition which so many 
others refuse to perform, and because they have these feel- 
ings within them, and because all this is piety, and they are 
pious ! They think that God will be good to them because 
they are pious without being righteous, because they are 
willing not to deny the existence of facts, and condescend to 
give credit to that which being true cannot be denied ! 

This act and deed of their evil minds, this admission of 
facts which they call believing, is a wonderful act and deed 
of theirs, since it has more virtue than all the solid works and 
good acts and deeds of the law all put together ! for it car- 
ries them to heaven, which a man's doing all the good acts 
and deeds of the law can never do, as they themselves con- 
fess ! Most astonishing ! that wise men, sane men, should 
believe they will go to heaven for one act which is not a good 
act, and yet who preach and teach that a man could not go 
to heaven for millions of good acts. But going to heaven is 
not all they obtain and effect by this their one act and deed 
of believing ! It has greater power still ! for they are not 
only going to heaven for being willing to admit that which, 
if it is the truth which they admit, cannot be denied, but 



92 THE pious christian's 

moreover this act of theirs, this their performance of a con- 
dition and duty, this deed of their fleshly will and minds, 
this effort of their intellect, does far greater wonders than 
lifting them up to heaven ! Yea ! as they teach and verily 
believe, it makes God good if they only do this deed ! For 
they say, He is not good unless they first do this act ! He 
does not save if men do not first perform this condition ! but 
if they do it first, then it makes Him good ! Oh, then they 
say with raptures, He is most wonderfully good ! so very 
good ! so merciful ! so full of grace ! if they only do this 
deed, and provided they do it ! then He is God, after them, 
if they first do this act ! but otherwise He is not God at all, 
that is, He is not good and gracious ! Thus they think and 
teach that God is altogether such a one as they are ! It re- 
quires money to make them good, and they think God is just 
like them, He is not good without money and without price. 
They destroy men, and they think God is like them ! they 
do not judge righteous judgment, and they teach that God, 
like them, will not judge righteous judgment, rendering to 
all men according to their deeds. 

Most terrible wickedness of the wicked man ! of him who 
not being taught of God, not having the spirit, the honest 
and good heart and spirit of Christ, sets himself up to teach 
the things of God to men ! Astonishing blasphemy ! and 
proud self-exaltation of an insolent worm ! Thus they make 
themselves the authors of the goodness of God ! they make 
an act and deed of a filthy man the cause of the goodness 
of God ! and a cause of goodness to whom ? To those who 
will not believe that it exists ! who refuse the gift of good- 
ness and mercy ! who desire it not, and would not receive 
it for the world ! who would rather not to be saved at all, 
than to be saved by the will, and deed, and doing of God for 
nothing ! that is, by His goodness and not by their goodness I 
who say it is not true that God is so good, that we have no- 
thing to do for His great salvation, and that He gives for 
nothing ! No ! it is wickedness, they say, to believe this, to 
believe and receive the goodness of God, to open the mouth 
and eat this honey ! It is quite false, they say, that God is 
so good as all this ! as to give every thing, even all things, 
freely by Jesus Christ, that is, for nothing ! No ! they say, 
— undertaking to speak for God— He is not good without the 
deed, and doing of the dead, and the cursed, even of man 
first ! but if man will only do a little something first, — nay, 
not even do something, but only assent and agree to what 
he cannot deny, then though God will not be good to him for 



FUTH AND HOPE. 93 

nothing, in the riches of His Grace, yet for this paltry con- 
sideration, this worse than nothing, this insolence of his pious 
assenting to facts, — which they call believing, — for this, God 
will be wonderfully good and gracious, and take them to 
heaven ! Thus it is quite shocking, yea frightfully impious, 
to their minds, to think that God is really good and giveth 
all things for nothing, but it is being very pious, to believe 
and teach that He sells all His gifts for an effort and deed 
from man, which is worse than nothing, which is impudent 
insolence, and audacious deceit and crime ! 

Such is the stupendous blasphemy which they call vital 
godliness and evangelical religion, teaching that God is not 
good unless the filthy beast is first a little good, and feels 
good a little ! and then teaching that if he, the unclean one, 
will patronize God, and condescend to believe what cannot 
be denied, then for this his " doing something," — because he 
performs this condition of salvation, and goes to church, and 
is pious, — God will be very good indeed ! 

Thus, as they confidently teach, a pious deed of an impure, 
defiled, and unclean man, an act of piety which he does, 
makes God good ! Thus they are the authors of the good- 
ness of God ! For if they do this deed of theirs, and per- 
form terms and conditions of piety, God will be good and 
save them ! 

But not only this deed of theirs makes God good, yea, and 
the more they do it, the more earnestly, solemnly, piously, 
and seriously they do it, the more good it makes Him — (for 
His goodness begins, and goes on, and increases the more 
they do and feel, such is their blasphemy,) — besides making 
God good, it does more, it also makes Him wicked ! yea, a 
liar like themselves ! For if they do this deed, the deed of 
the dead and the damned by the law, — if they do it, then 
the law of righteousness, truth, and justice, the word which 
God hath spoken, will all be broken and be a he, and signify 
nothing, and God will take to heaven the cursed and the 
wicked who are under all the wrath and claims of a just law, 
and who have not fulfilled it ! He mil take them into 
heaven for doing this one deed of their piety, He will violate 
His own righteous law, and make it to be a lie and himself 
a liar, all for the sake of this one pious action, together with 
a little pious feeling and a genuine experience joined with it ! 
He who hath sent His Son into the world for the very pur- 
pose to do the righteousness of the law, and fulfil it for the 
unrighteous, and make them righteous by doing it in them, 
because they could not possibly be blessed without this 



94 THE pious christian's 

righteousness — He will, as they teach and believe, take them 
to heaven without this righteousness, even them who do not 
do this righteousness themselves, and who will not, yea, who 
scorn to receive His Son to do it for them and in them, they 
doing nothing, believing ! 

And it is astonishing, the confidence and boldness of 
human pride and wisdom with which they assert their dam- 
nable doctrine, and prove conclusively to themselves that to 
believe is a deed and act of then own ! how they impose 
upon and overawe them that hear them ! The proud laugh ! 
the hauglnVv scorn ! the insolent triumph ! with which they 
lift up their heads against God ! and convince themselves of 
the certain and undoubted truth of these lies and delusions 
of Satan ! Thus in their confidence and boldness the pow- 
ers of heaven are shaken ! and they who know better, when 
they hear them, are overwhelmed with confusion, and are 
speechless before them ! Thus they say triumphantly, 
" What is the use of saying believe, if we cannot and do not 
believe ?" They are sure that God is altogether such a one 
as they are, that like them He says and does not, that when 
He speaks He does not also perform, that when He speaks 
the word, the Power is with man, and His word is merely 
intended to call upon man to put forth his power and go to 
heaven, if he pleases to do so. When they say what is the 
use of His word " Believe," if man does not do the deed, 
they say, " What is the power and what is the use of the 
word of God ? Where is the power of God ? Who is God, 
and who has power but us ? What is the use of that Mighty 
voice, who ' when He spake it was done, ivhen He commanded 
it stood fasti when He uttered His voice the worlds were 
created ? What, (say they,) is the Power of God without 
our will and power, even without us ?" Thus in this day 
the powers of heaven are shaken ! Thus this evil beast, 
even pious man, hath exalted himself above God, and takes 
His work and power to itself ! He hath enthroned and ex- 
alted himself above the Lord God Omnipotent ! Thus Satan 
for a short season prevails and triumphs under the mask and 
deception of " vital piety and evangelical, experimental re- 
ligion !" Thus the man under the law, who is sin, for he 
does not fulfil the law, is exalted to heaven in his own glory 
with the curse upon him, and exhibits himself as God, doing 
his own will, establishing his own law of piety above God's 
law, standing in the temple of God, showing that he, the 
pious man, is god ! Let him that readeth understand ! 

This is the abomination spoken of by Daniel, the prophet, 



FAITH AND HOPE. 95 

which was first set up in the midst of the week of 700 
years, which has ruled eyer since, and overcome the saints 
of God, producing a desolation which the Lord Jesus Christ 
revealed should continue 1260 years ; and now in this day 
it is the consummation of that desolation, when the deceiv- 
ing beast which ascendeth out of the Earth — not the violent 
beast out of the Sea — has triumphed by deceit, and cast 
down the truth, — a time which, as the Lord God liveth who 
made heaven and all that therein is, and the Earth and all 
that therein is, and the Sea and all that is therein, shall be 
no longer ! But God will appear for His people, and de- 
liver and bless them, and confirm His covenant with them 
again as He did before for a week of 700 years, till the 
abomination arose ; and it shall come to pass in these last 
days, that the Mountain of the Lord's House shall be estab- 
lished and built up above the tops of the proud religious 
mountains of the Earth, and all nations shall flow unto it, as 
God has revealed by His Holy apostles and prophets ! This 
is the abomination, the desolation produced by which was to 
continue 1260 years, but whose duration itself was to be 1290 
years, as Daniel foretold. And now at the end of the time 
of desolation, God will cleanse His sanctuary by the word of 
His mouth, and the beast shall be cast out of the temple, 
the saints of God shall no longer trust in him, but draw nigh 
unto God in t&e only sacrifice and oblation, in Jesus Christ, 
our great High Priest, abiding in Him, praising and blessing 
God in Him, in righteousness and true holiness even in Him ! 
From the time when Daniel saw the visions in which these 
things are revealed, to the day when the sanctuary shall be 
cleansed by the Word of the Lord, and the beast, the swine, 
be cast out, is 2300 years. If Daniel lived 449 years B. C, 
449 and 1851 is 2300 years. But God only knoweth the 
times and the seasons which He has ordained ; if we knew 
them, it would not be to. know righteousness. No word 
which He has spoken can fail, but let them who fear Him 
seek rather to enter into His kingdom and righteousness, and 
all the rest shall be added unto them. • 

The faith and doctrine of the Pious Christians is the doc- 
trine of Antichrist. 
The very faith and doctrine of the Pious Christians, that 
Cnan ever believes at all, that he seeks God, that he does 
good, that he draws nigh to God, that he hopes in God, in a 
word, that he lives, that he believes, (for to believe is to have 
Jife,) is the doctrine of the beast and of Antichrist For if ha 



96 

does good he lives, and if he lives, there is no need of Christ 
the life. If he lives, he is not dead, and Christ did not die. 
If he lives and does good, Christ is not risen from the dead, 
to be our life and righteousness. If this beast, who is sin, 
who is enmity against God, lives, that is does good and ap- 

E roaches to God, and knows Him, and believing in Him, 
eholds His glory, then there is no law of God ! then there is 
no sacrifice ! then there is no Mediator, no great High Priest, 
there is no Christ of God ; then there is no salvation ! There 
is no law of God ; for how can there be, if sinful man, con- 
demned by the law, can approach unto God ? There is no 
sacrifice and no salvation, for how can there be if we are not 
delivered from this evil man, from sin, from our own selves, 
from our own devilish corruptions and uncleannesses, from 
the corrupt man of the earth, the evil flesh and its evil mind, 
to which we are in bondage — how can we be delivered from 
this death and sin and curse, which separates us from God, 
if Christ our Passover, has not been slain for us, if he has not 
put to death, by his death, the enmity, to deliver us from our 
captivity and bondage to sin, which is too strong for us ? If 
this task-master, the evil mind of the flesh, the corrupt man, 
is not slain, there is no sacrifice of God, there is no deliver- 
ance, there is no redemption for us. If he lives, we are 
dead, for we only live when he dies ; and he lives, he is not 
put to death, if he does good, if he does righteousness ; if he 
has it to do, that is if we have righteousness to do, if we 
have any thing of this salvation of God to do, then the beast 
lives, and there is no sacrifice and oblation, no Christ who 
saves, but this beast is the Saviour. 

If he draws nigh to God and has access to God, then it is 
not Christ who is the Mediator, in whom and by whom we 
draw nigh to God. If this beast lives, seeks God, and does 
all the acts and deeds towards God which Jesus Christ, the 
Mediator and High Priest does for the people of God, and 
then goes to heaven and lives there too, then he is not slain, 
he is not destroyed, Christ has not put to death the flesh, the 
body of sin and death, the old man Adam, there is no sac- 
rifice and oblation, no High Priest to God ; this evil beast, 
the old Adam, is instead of Christ ; he approaches to God ; 
he offers prayers and sacrifices to God ; he does all things 
for himself ; he goes to heaven, and Christ is utterly taken 
out of the way. 

And so it has been ever since the beast, the abomination 
was set up. He, the bridegroom, the sacrifice and oblation, 
the High Priest of the house of Israel, has been taken out of 



FAITH AND HOPE. 97 

the way, and iniquity, even man, the beast, has been set up, 
and the sanctuary has been polluted. And the saints of God 
have been overcome by the beast, and have thought that he, 
the beast, that is they men in the flesh, did something, did 
then- works and had something to do in order to please God, 
in order to be saved. They have not believed that it was 
Christ who does all things for us, towards God, that he brings 
us to God in Himself, in his righteousness, in his blood ; that 
the beast, the mind of evil, the heart of stone is taken alto- 
gether away, slain by his death. But they have thought, 
(being overcome by the beast,) that the beast lived, that he 
believed, that he, man, did something, that he drew nigh unto 
God. They, being fleshly, have thought that they had some- 
thing to do, that Christ did not or would not do enough, that 
God did not save wholly by his Son, without the hand of 
man. They understood not that he giveth all things and 
performeth all things for us, that we have nothing to do of 
this Salvation, but entering into Christ, his holy temple, we 
are blessed in Him, we receive every thing and have every 
thing in Him. God is with us in Him, for God is in Him and 
He is in us. "We stand still and behold the salvation of God. 
We sit still in the lion's den, and God delivers us from the 
mouths of the lions. This is the God of Jacob ; and none 
but Jacob, the elect and chosen of God, will love and rejoice 
in this great and glorious God, the God of Israel, who alone 
doeth great things, who doeth and giveth such wonderful 
things to his people. To believe in Him, to trust in Him, is 
to have and receive this blessing, this glorious rest of right- 
eousness. Blessed is the man who trusteth in Him. 

The flesh, Adam, the corrupt man, will never believe the 
word of truth, only the man of God, he that is of God, created 
and born of God, the member and branch of his Christ, will 
hear the word of God, and believe and live, a living branch, 
henceforth joined to the true vine, abiding in him forever, 
kept by the mighty power of God, filled with him in the 
spirit, and never more departing from God. This is the 
Covenant which God said He would, after those days, make 
with the house of Israel. 

Ihe abomination of teaching that man believes, and so God 
dwells in him. 
Man of the earth, he who is sin, and under the law, never 
believes. When we believe, our spirits are delivered from 
the corrupt flesh, and we are heavenly men in Christ Jesu3, 
joined by faith with Him, we are entered into Christ, and are 



98 THE pious christian's 

one spirit with him, having put off the wrathful, spiteful, 
selfish evil man, who is under the law, in whom dwelleth no 
good thing. This is the man who worships God, the man 
who is one with Christ, a righteous man, not the man who is 
under the law, a cursed man. Astonishing abomination, to 
set up the man who sinneth, even man, to do good, and go 
to heaven. To say that he ever believes, that God ever 
dwells in this vile one ; and not only he believes, and God 
dwells in him, but he believes if he will, and so God dwells 
in him if he will, if he pleases to accept Him. God dwells 
where he will and where he chooses, and with whom he will, 
and with whom he has chosen, not where a condemned, un- 
clean, malicious beast wills and pleases. God dwells in His 
elect, His Christ, who is from everlasting, His only begotten 
Son, and His holy people and branches. They are His people, 
His inheritance, whom God hath created for His glory, and 
given them to Christ, and in Him they are made " an habita- 
tion of God, through the Spirit" 

In making the man of sin to believe and live, they deny 
the death of Christ, who hath put Him to death in His own 
body on the tree, cutting off the filthy flesh, setting His 
church and people free from Him, the man of the earth, the 
violent man with whom they were joined, and to whom they 
are in bondage, one evil man in him. 

Their doctrine that man, the old corrupt man, believes 
and lives, is the abomination, and the doctrine of Antichrist. 
It is putting out of the way the M ediator, the great High 
Priest, taking away his sacrifice and oblation, denying his 
doing all things for us, setting up man's doing, his sacrifice 
and oblation, an unclean offering, yea, a pollution and an 
abomination ! 

They are greatly exalted, they are lifted up to heaven in 
their own vain conceit, they laugh at God and his doctrine. 
They laugh to think tfyat their sacrifices and doings, and 
feelings and imaginations' should not be considered as what 
they think they are. they laugh to think that the beast 
should do nothing, that he should be slain, that Christ 
should reign in the hearts, the souls, the spirits of His people, 
His own members, doing all things for them. God shall 
laugh at them with their oblations, their piety, their vital 
godliness, their personal holiness, their evangelical religion. 
He that sitteth in the- heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall 
have them in derision. 



FAITH AND HOPE. 99 

Of the lying doctrine of doing good by the grace of God. 1 

Their faith, their piety, all their religion, is wholly and 
entirely doing something ; it is all something they do ; but 
they say they do good, they do all their piety and pious 
deeds by the grace of God. This is the common lie of 
human nature, of the deceived heart and mind of the man 
who sinneth. The heathen and pagan people of the world, 
the Sea, in all ages, have always taught this doctrine, and 
pretended in their religion that they did good and were 
going to heaven, or going to be blessed when they died, by 
the help of their gods. They all professed to do something 
whereby they would go to a good place, but it was all by 
the help of their gods that they did it, of course, and they 
all in this manner professed to be saved entirely by grace 
and not by works. No people have ever had a god, but 
they have always professed this Pious Christian doctrine, 
and said they believed that their gods lent them a helping 
hand now and then. It is a lying doctrine to teach that we 
do good, and so obtain everlasting blessing ; much more is it 
a lying doctrine to teach that we do it, and God helps. 

Of course, man does good in his generation, as a man to 
man, so do all other creatures and animals ; some of them 
are very good, affectionate and kind to each other. But this 
is fleshly good ; such are deeds of the flesh, good for the 
flesh and for the earth, but not for heaven. They are 
pleasant while they last, but the goodness of the flesh is like 
the flower of the grass, which withereth in a moment ; it is 
momentary, it is by fits and starts, it is selfish and inter- 
ested, it is by impulse and enticement, it is by law and 
duty, by constraint and obligation, it is by weight and meas- 
ure, grudging and calculating, it is not the true good, it is not 
righteousness, which is the Word of our God, which liveth 
and abideth forever, even Jesus Christ, who cometh and 
dwelleth in them that receive him, doing righteousness. Of 
course men, and all animals, do their good, such as is good 
in their eyes, and is good for them, and is good in its way, 
but it is not good before God, which makes us righteous 
before God. Also this is not the doing good of which it is 
here the question ; for when the Pious Christians say they 
do good by the grace of God, they mean good for heaven, 
good by which they really believe, and also say, they are 
going to heaven ; they mean that which is good before God, 
in which they expect to stand in the presence of God. They 
say they do this good, this righteousness, in which we are 
righteous, and justified in the sight of God, and they say that 



100 THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN'S 

God helps them to do it. They deceive themselves and the 
truth is not in them, when they say they do good by help or 
by grace, or at all ; for to do good is to do righteousness, it 
is to have no sin, or else it would not be good nor righteous- 
ness, and "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves" 
No man, no flesh, ever did or ever does good, that which only 
is good, such as we can go to heaven in, and appear before 
God. The Scripture is express on this point. " God looked 
down from heaven, upon the children of men, to see if there 
were any that did good; they are altogether become filthy, 
there is none that docth good, no, not one !" Again, the Scrip- 
ture shows that no man doeth good for heaven, good in 
which we can stand in the presence of God, saying by David, 
" In thy sight shall no flesh living be justified" Again, the 
Scripture plainly shows that no man doeth good for heaven, 
by declaring that even if a man did all the good commanded, 
all the good deeds of the law, it would not be good enough 
for heaven, it would not be righteousness in which he could 
appear before God, saying, " By the deeds of the law, (and to 
do the deeds of the law is to do all good deeds,) shall no 
man living be justified!' Therefore no man doeth good, no 
man doeth righteousness, and becomes righteous before God, 
so as to go to heaven ; no, even if he did all the good which 
by the law he ought to do, it would not be righteousness in 
which is no sin, it would not be good enough for heaven. 
But since it is so, and since no man doeth this good, what an 
abomination of falsehood it is, to teach that we do it and 
God helps us by his grace to do what we never do. It is a lie, 
to say that we do such good, but it is a far greater lie, it is 
double lying, to say that we do it and God helps us to do it. 
To teach that God helps man to do good by his grace, is to 
say that he helps to falsify his own word, and make himself 
a liar, by aiding and assisting man to do that which he hath 
himself declared man never does. No, God does not help 
man, corrupt man, to do what he never does, what God hath 
moreover declared he never can do, saying, " a corrupt tree 
cannot bring forth good fruit" The truth is, man never 
doeth this good, which only is good. The truth is, that God 
never helps him to do it. The truth is that God alone doeth 
it by his Christ, and if we are righteous, if we go to heaven, 
he is our righteousness, he doeth good, he doeth righteous- 
ness, we do it not, we receive him to do it, we believe. It 
all comes at last to this, the only true doctrine of God, that 
it is God who doeth all righteousness for us, and in us, his 
people, whom he loveth ; we do it not, and having him to do 



FAITH AST) HOPE. 101 

it, we have it not to do. They that receive not this truth, re- 
ceive not the doctrine of God, they receive not the truth, and 
believe not in God ; they are unbelievers, and therefore the 
truth is that the piety and religion of the Christians in this 
day is infidelity, and they are infidels, for they say they do 
good, which is to say there is no God who doeth it, by whom 
is this salvation. 

By this their doctrine, teaching that man d&es good, and God 
helps him by Ms Grace to do it, they make God a liar, and 
His law a lie. 

The law is a he, it is altogether a falsehood and a folly, if 
God gives grace and favour to him who is condemned by this 
law, which he certainly has to mini, and he certainly does 
not fulfil it. If there could possibly be grace to them that 
do not fulfil the righteousness of the law, the law would be 
an utter he, and God who has given it a liar. For the law 
expressly says that he who does not fulfil all its righteous- 
ness is cursed. God is indeed gracious to his people, but it 
is to his people in Christ Jesus, who believe in Him. and are 
righteous and without sin in Him. He does not violate the 
law for their sakes, his wrath is upon them while they do 
iniquity, according as they do it ; and tkey are under the law, 
children of wrath, even as others. No degree whatever of 
piety or goodness can do away with the curse, the fear and 
torment of this law. Nothing but no six can do that, for 
wherever there is sin, there is the law against it He who 
knew no sin, when he was made sin for us, was cursed while 
under the law. He did not return to His glory, and enter 
into heaven and blessing, until he had put away sin by the 
sacrifice of Himself, putting to death the enmity, the body of 
sin and death, in His own body on the tree, destroying the 
evil man, the mind of the flesh for us, and with Him we put 
off that evil man, and with Him we are raised from the dead. 

This evil, lying and abominable doctrine, that the man 
who is sin, who is under the curse of the law before God, 
who doeth evil and that continually, that this man doeth 
good, yea, good for heaven, and that God helps him to do it, 
is the Christian abomination, by which he, the bridegroom, 
has been taken out of the way, and the man who sinneth 
has been set up in his stead. It was set up by the first 
beast, twelve hundred and sixty years ago, and has produced 
a desolation, during which the saints of God have been most 
desolate, and now in this day it is the consummation of that 
desolation. It is the setting up of the corrupt and evil man, 



102 

to do righteousness, that is, good, wherein to appear before 
God, instead of having and receiving Jesus, the Christ and 
Salvation of God, to come unto us, to be in us, and we in him, 
worshipping God in and by Him, the great High Priest, in 
righteousness and true holiness, without spot in Him. He 
has been taken out of the way, and an abomination, an un- 
clean beast, has been set up, pretending to do good and go 
to heaven himself 

This abominable doctrine of man doing good, even good 
for heaven, and God serving as a minister and assistant to 
help him to do it, never vjas the doctrine of the fathers, the 
saints of God among the Jews. 

They did not proudly and wickedly say, like the Pharisees 
and like the pious Christians of this day, (which is one same 
and identical generation,) that they did good and were going 
to heaven because they did it. They said the truth, for the 
truth was in them, that it was God who did it all in them 
and for them. They waited upon God for this salvation, 
even righteousness, even Christ. They trusted to God to do 
it, that is, they believed. They said by the Spirit of Christ 
and of God : " Thou hast wrought all our works in us" "It 
is God who executeth righteousness in Jacob" And the 
Apostle by the same spirit said : "/ live" that i3, I have 
righteousness, I do it, for there is no other life than righteous- 
ness, "yet not I but Christ liveth in me." He was by faith 
one with Christ, joined with Him, and what Christ did was 
his doing, but Christ did it all in him. Thus God dwells in 
Jacob and executeth righteousness in him, and thus he is 
righteous in the Anointed, but it is God who doeth, not 
man. It is the man with God who doeth righteousness, not 
the man without God, it is the heavenly man Christ, and His 
people in Him, not the man Adam. God dwelleth not in 
Adam, in man, doing righteousness in him, nor helping him 
to do it ! He dwelleth only in His Christ, His Anointed, in 
whom all the sons of God, the creation of God, are one, a 
righteous man, the Anointed, the first born Son of God. Thus 
God said of His people to Pharoah, "Israel is my first bom 
Son." In Christ, God ever beholdeth His people without 
sin, sprinkled by His blood, and even while His people in 
the flesh, are alienated from God by wicked works, serving 
sin, not delivered, not blessed, but suffering the wrath of 
the law, separated from God by their sins, yet He saith of 
them "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob" For the lamb, 



FAITH AND HOPE. 103 

slain from the foundation of the world, hath taken away all 
our sins and cleansed us by His blood. 

Thus it is not man, it is not any one of the children of 
men that doeth good, that is righteousness, — for God dwelleth 
not in man, — but it is Christ, the Holy One, the Great High 
Priest, the Mediator between God and man, who, with His 
branches joined with Him, entered into Him, worships the 
Father in righteousness and true holiness, in life, no more 
dead by the law ; and it is Christ who is the life and the 
righteousness in all His people, even in all them that believe. 
He enters into the holy place with us, carrying us in His 
bosom, in Him we are brought nigh unto God! We are 
joined in one with Him, putting off with Him by His death, 
the flesh, even sin. Thus we have good for heaven in Him, 
thus we enter into heaven in Him, thus we are righteous in 
Him, and all this blessing, this righteousness, is by grace, by 
gift, by promise, it is given and it is received, that is, we 
believe. If we cry unto God we are sons of God, if we 
seek Him and His strength, if we hunger and thirst after 
righteousness, even His Christ and His Salvation, we are 
sons of God, for it is not the man of sin, the flesh, the adver- 
sary, it is not any one of the children of men, it is the branch 
of Christ, the Spirit of the Son of God, who cries unto God 
and calls upon Him, and whosoever calleth upon Him shall 
be saved. And though we be in bondage to corruption, to 
the strong man, the man of sin, the mind of the flesh, though 
joined with it in captivity and death, being one man with it 
who is sin, as Christ was made sin, one man, yet without sin, 
yet God will deliver us, who hunger and thirst after His 
righteousness, and bring us, the members of His Christ, out 
of captivity and darkness into marvellous light ! for Christ 
hath gotten the victory for us, and slain the enmity, and 
purchased us for Himself, having once put Himself in the same 
death and captivity and cursing in which we are, in the flesh, 
(yet without sin,) to deliver us from this enemy and death, 
even ourselves, even sin ! 

Thus it is true that righteousness is by the Grace of God, 
and they that believe being one with Christ, do good, that is 
righteousness, for He is in them and He doeth it ! This is 
the truth of God", this is doing good and departing from all 
iniquity, being delivered from the power and dominion of 
sin, by the Grace of God which is with us, even " God with 
ws," for that is His name ! This, the very truth of God, is 
turned into a lie by the enemies of God and His righteous- 
ness ! who confess not that it is Jesus Christ come in the flesh, 



104 the pious christian's 

that is, in His people, who doeth all righteousness in them 
and they do it not, but proudly, wickedly and blasphemously 
say, that they, wicked men, do righteousness and God helps 
them to do it, and this, they say, is doing good by the grace 
of God ! When they say they do good by the grace of God, 
they signify a lie, yea, a most abominable lie ! even the 
abomination of the beast ! They signify not that God doeth 
righteousness in us, by His Christ, His grace, His unspeak- 
able gift, sending Him, His Word, to be in us, but they signify 
and say that they, corrupt men, do righteousness, that is good, 
that their earthly polluted deeds and bloated conceited feel- 
ings are good, yea such good, that they are going to heaven 
in it all, and they do it all — as indeed they do — and they 
say God has helped them to do it ! Thus they do good by 
the Grace of God, thus they think they are going to heaven! 
this they say, is the grace and salvation of God, they do, and 
God lends them a helping hand now and then, and influ- 
ences them and assists them to do, and works upon their 
wicked hearts to do, and stirs up wicked men to do righteous- 
ness ! Thus they turn the very words of the truth of God 
into a lie, thus they pervert the scriptures, thus they utter 
their lies in the words of truth, and are therefore persuaded, 
that when they believe a lie, they believe the truth ! Thus 
in their doctrine of doing good by the grace of God, it is 
not God who, by His Christ, His Grace, executeth righteous- 
ness in Jacob, His chosen, His people, the body and branches 
of His dear Son, no ! but wicked men, the man who is sin, 
he it is who does good ! they wicked man are pious, they do 
good, and the grace and salvation of God is, that He stands 
by and helps them now and then, to do it, and works them 
up and influences them, and they do it, and they go to heaven ! 
Thus they exalt the man of sin above Him, whom yet they 
call God, and thus they make God a subordinate tool, a 
helper to him, the beast ! He. Iniquity, does good and God 
helps him ! Thus they pervert and use the very words of 
truth to signify and teach the most frightful of abominations 
and blasphemies, to set up the most unclean of all beasts, to 
do righteousness for heaven, instead of the Most Holy One 
of God ! They are most confident that their lie is the truth, 
that the wine of Sodom, with which they make themselves 
drunk, is the true wine, because they have put it into the 
golden vessels of the Temple, giving expression to their lie 
in the very words of the truth of Christ ! They have turned 
the truth of God into a lie, and in this day are triumphing 
and revelling in their He, being drunk, reeling to and fro, like 



FAITH AND HOPE. 105 

a drunkard, in religious intoxication of pride and self-conceit, 
looking in their madness for the terrible judgments which 
are about to fall on them, to fall upon others, and believing 
that this expectation of destruction upon others, is faith in 
God, being turned in all things upside down. 

Their doctrine of justification by faith is the reverse of the 
true doctrine. 

They say they are justified by faith ! what they call jus- 
tification by faith, is the upside down of the truth, a perver- 
sion of the Scriptures, and is a lie. They are in all things 
turned upside down ; when they speak of any doctrine, 
though they use the very words of truth, yet they teach and 
signify the reverse, the very upside down of the true doctrine. 
Thus when they say, " Believe and thou shalt be saved,'' they 
signify a lie, for they signify not — receive righteousness first 
from God, that is, believe, — but give piety first to God, do 
something first yourself; do not receive ; give and do first, 
and after that " thou shalt be saved" Thus they use the 
very words of truth, to teach the lie of man's piety and 
doing. Their teaching is the folly of wickedness, for he that 
doeth good, that is righteousness first, has no need to believe 
and be blessed afterwards ; righteousness is blessing, there is 
none other, anti. he that doeth it is blessed already, he has 
salvation without believing, that is, without God ! Such is 
the foolish wickedness of their teaching, to be pious and do 
good, and then you are a believer ! They talk with feigned 
raptures of being "justified by faith," and imagine that, 
because they use the very words of the Scripture, therefore, 
the lie they teach is the very truth, being blind, not knowing 
that they have turned the truth of God into a lie, worship- 

Eing and serving man, the creature, the beast who is cursed 
y the law, rather than God the Creator, who is blessed for 
evermore ! 

Having turned the truth into a he, the very truth of God 
is a lie in their mouths. When they talk of being justified 
by faith, they signify a he, the very reverse of the truth, 
meaning nothing but being justified by their own doings. 
For with them, faith is a work they do, a condition they per- 
form, man does it, they insist, upon it, that he the wicked one 
believes. Therefore, as faith is what man does, to be justi- 
fied by faith is to be justified by what man does ! This is 
the reverse of the truth, it is the abomination and the lie, 
viz. : that evil man does something, and is righteous before 
God. and he goes to heaven by doing something ! In all 



106 THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN'S 

things, they the Earth, the religious world, the pious Chris- 
tians, are turned upside down ! The truth of God is, that man 
is not justified before God by anything he does, and their 
doctrine is, that man is justified before God by something 
which he does I The truth is, that a man is not righteous 
before God by something which he does ! The truth is, that 
a man is not righteous before God by his doing anything, no I 
not even by his doing all the good deeds of the law ; their 
doctrine is the very reverse, that a man is made righteous 
before God by doing something, yea, and goes to heaven if 
he does something, if he is very pious, for then he believes ! 
So bold, impudent, and convinced are they, that their lie is 
the truth, and that the truth of God is a lie, that they giggle 
with high glee, and laugh with proud scorn at the truth of 
God, that a man is made righteous before God, doing nothing, 
yea, nothing whatever, receiving all from God, that is, by 
faith ! They assert their lie to be true, that he is made right- 
eous before God, and goes to heaven by his doing conditions, 
and one little something, which, speaking lies they call faith. 
Their doctrine of justification by faith, is being justified by 
a deed which man does ! For then* faith is doing something, 
and to be justified by such a faith is justification by doing 
something, not by faith, and it is a lie. Into this wickedness 
and folly they fall by their own pride, in believing in man, 
that is, worshipping the beast, the creature rather than the 
Creator, in believing contrary to the word of God, that any 
good thing towards God comes from the creature, who is 
cursed before God, in teaching that he believes at all, and 
thereby teaching that God dwells in this evil and accursed 
one ! They teach confidently that man believes, it is some- 
t hing he does, therefore, justification by faith is with them 
justification by something which man does ! by a deed of 
corrupt man ! It is a lying doctrine, denying God and His 
gift, His power and doing, His righteousness, His Christ I 
But they use the words of truth to speak their lie, and there- 
fore, they think they have the truth I 

The true doctrine of justification by faith, excludes the 
possibility of human works and glory. 

Man is never justified, he v is never made, and never 
becomes righteous, he is flesh and sin ; it matters not who he 
may be, even if it were Christ himself, if he is a man under 
the law, he is sin. When the Christ of God, the Lord of 
glory, came down from heaven and was made man, (being 
then called Jesus,) He who knew no sin, was then made sin* 



FAIJH AND HOPE. 107 

made under the law, a cursed man for our sakesl While 
He was thus a man, even sin, such as His people are whom 
He came to deliver, even flesh, He was not justified ! not 
till he rose from the dead, having put to death the enmity, 
the mind of the flesh, the corrupt man, in His own body on 
the tree. By His death His people, His own body the 
church, are delivered from the mind of the flesh, which is 
death and sin, and made righteous in Him, in His resurrec- 
tion from the dead. There is no possibility of being justified, 
that is, of becoming righteous, but by the death and resur- 
rection of Jesus Christ, because there is no possibility of 
becoming righteous, while we are men under the law ; if that 
was possible, Christ is dead in vain. Justification by faith is 
ceasing to be sin in Adam, and being made the righteousness 
of God in Christ ! it is entering into righteousness, even into 
Christ ! (there is no other Justification) ; it is passing 
from being one with Adam, to being one with Christ, from 
sin to righteousness, from death to life. Cliriet has purchased 
this blessing of life and justification for us by His death ; He 
became such as we are, man, even sin, cursed by the law, 
that we might be made such as He is, the Anointed, the 
Blessed of God ! By His death He destroyed the enmity, 
the evil mind and heart of the flesh, the man Adam, and our 
spirits, which, joined with the flesh, made that one corrupt 
man, are delivered from captivity unto death and sin, which 
are by the law ; then, when that union, in which we are one 
evil man is destroyed by the death of one of the twain, the 
man who was that union, exists no more. Thus Christ hath 
put to death for us the corrupt man, " making in himself of 
twain one new man, so making peace." The old union was 
the old man, which He hath destroyed by His death, and we 
being delivered from our bondage to corruption, enter by 
fSith into a new union, and are new men in Christ ; we were 
joined with the fles*h, and T%ere one man, who is sin ; but 
believing, we are joined witbNhe Lord in the spirit, and are 
one righteous man in Him. This 13 being made righteous, 
this is being justified by faith even entering into Christ, and 
becoming one righteous spirit with Him who is raised from 
the dead, as before, we were one wicked flesh with him, the 
man who is dead. It is ceasing to be sin in Adam, and 
becoming the righteousness of God in Christ, ceasing to have 
the mind of the flesh, wjiich will do, and will not submit to 
God to do, and having the mind of Jesus Christ, an obedient 
holy child, in whom God is, doing all and being all ! We d.e 
with Him, we are raised from the dead with Him, we liv a e 



108 the pious ckbxsttanV 

being" one with Him. We were partakers of the evil nature 
before, but entering by faith into Christ, we put it off with 
Him in His death, and are partakers of the divine nature 
with Him in His life. He hath bought us for Himself by 
His death and sufferings to be partakers with Him of this 
blessing and glory. We who knew no righteousness are 
made righteousness, becoming one with Him, as He who 
knew no sin, was made sin, becoming one with us ! Because 
we were His, given unto Him, created in Him before the 
foundation of the world, and He loved us, and would deliver 
us, therefore He became condemned and cursed by the 
law as we are, being made one with us in the flesh, that we 
might be justified and blessed, as He is, in glory with the 
Father, being made one with Him in the spirit. Therefore, 
if any man is in Christ Jesus he is a new creature, he hath 
the mind of Christ, he hath no more the mind, the heart of 
man, which is enmity, death, and corruption ! 

Thus the man who is justified, believing in Christ, receiving 
Him the Salvation of God, His living Word whom God hath 
sent, who is made righteous, spotless, without blemish before 
God by faith, who lives by faith, receiving him the life, receiv- 
ing God to be His God, is the man with Christ, who by 
faith is one with Him, and is joined with Him, one spirit with 
Him, putting off that other man which he was before, who is 
sin, who is under a law to do good, and is cursed, for he 
doeth evil ! Christ hath slain him for us, even the evil mind 
and heart of the evil man by His death, having been made 
this cursed man, such as we are, to deliver us of our captivity 
to this sin and death, that we might become such as He is, 
the habitation of God ! This is the man who is justified, it is 
the branch, the member of Christ, the man of God who 
forsakes himself, even sin, 1< atbing, yea, abhorring himself, 
the man of sin who is death and sorrow and cursing under 
the law in the flesh : he hears the voice of the glory and 
love of God by Jesus Christ, and is raised from the dead by 
that Mighty voice ; he puts off the mind of the flesh, the old 
man who is corrupt with deceitful lusts, and having been a 
man of sin in his oneness with Adam, he is made a man of 
God in oneness with Christ. 

It is a great mystery how God delivers His people from 
their sins by the blood of atonement, even the sacrifice and 
oblation of His Son Jesus Christ ; how He makes them 
righteous by His life and resurrection from the dead. How 
He performs His work of love and mercy whereby He saves 
and blesses us for ever, we shall know and fully understand 



I 



FAITH AND HOrK. 109 

in the clue time, but to receive His deliverance from sin and 
the gift of righteousness from God by His dear Son is more 
than to understand the mystery how this salvation is accom- 
plished. Thousands have been saved from evil doing and 
great misery, and lived in peace, walking uprightly in the 
fear of God/looking to Him for His Christ, His righteousness, 
without knowing the wonderful way in which God delivered 
and blessed them ! and thousands in the pride of the human 
heart and mind, have taught and lectured learnedly about 
the mystery, without receiving any of the deliverance, nor 
longing by the Spirit of Christ after this salvation, — which is 
truth in the inward parts, doing righteousness and departing 
from all iniquity. 

Thus we are justified by faith, being made partakers of 
Christ, receiving Him the Salvation of God to be with us and 
in us, to save us from all our sins, and to be the Lord our 
righteousness, entering into Him, trusting, looking to Him 
to be saved at all times, receiving Him to do all for us, stand- 
ing still, beholding the salvation of God ! Thus also, faith 
excludes the possibility of human works and glory ; there is 
no working upon man, the unclean evil man, who is under 
the law, and cursed,— for no working upon him, no feelings 
of his will fulfil the righteousness of the law ; there is no 
helping nor aiding him the unclean one to do the work which 
Christ has done for us, being put to death in the flesh, and 
raised again from the dead for our justification, even to make 
us righteous in Him by His life, He living in us and doing 
all righteousness in us, we being one with Him. He did this 
work for us when we all were dead, and after He make** 
us alive, giving us to hear and believe, then the life and 
righteousness which is in us is Himself! He makes us alive 
and keeps us by His mighty power ; boasting is excluded 
except in Him, and in Him His people will glory and make 
their boast all the day long. 

The justification by faith, which they teach, is loiekedness 
and folly. 

Now the Earth in this day, the pious Christians, trust- 
ing in man the flesh, and having confidence in the flesh, 
believing that he the beast, undergoes a metamorphosis and 
transmutation, and is worked and operated upon, and then 
good comes out of him in whom dwelleth no good thing, 
— (and good comes out of this bad man, such ace their 
lies and contradictions, as soon as he feels deeply and sensi- 
bly that he is a bad man ! that is a sinner ; for then they 
10 



110 THE PIOUS CHRISTIANS 

say he is born again and is a good man, for he is a regene, 
rate man who doeth good ! so that of the two contradictions 
one must be false, either he is not a born again, new regene- 
rate man, and what he feels is true, he is a bad man ; or if he 
is turned into such a good, new regenerate man, then what 
he pretends to feel is a lie, and he is not a bad man — such 
are their contradictions and follies, which they greedily 
believe, who refuse to believe in Christ to do righteousness,) 

they believing in man that he is metamorphosed, 

and made into a doer of righteousness, — not believing in 
Christ the righteous man, the Lord from heaven, the right- 
eousness of His saints, the doer of it in and for them, — have 
fallen into the pit and the snare of the devil, through the 
pride and ignorance which is in them, a pride and self-con- 
ceit passing all bounds ! They teach that this wicked one 
who is destroyed with Christ in all them that belong to 
Christ, (" who make a covenant with God by sacrifice" dying 
with Christ unto sin) — they teach that this unclean one seeks 
God whom he naturally hates, and approaches unto Him 
from whom he is far off, and is visited and worked upon by 
God, yea, and visits God in all his filth and cursing, (for he 
believes, he the wicked one is operated upon, and he believes, 
he does the deed, he goes to heaven !) They say they men, 
operated-upon-men, with the law and therefore its curse 
upon them, without putting off the corrupt man, but still 
being men under the law, are made by a pretended work 
upon them to be doers of righteousness themselves ! and they 
earthly dead men, dead by the law, do deeds, pious deeds as 
they call them, and they do a deed which they call believ- 
ing, they assent to what they dare not deny, and then by 
virtue of this faith as they vainly call it, they are made 
righteous, spotless before God, that is, they are justified, by 
this deed which they themselves do, this condition which 
they perform ! Their doctrine is wickedness, for it is setting 
up the abomination, the corrupt man to be instead of Christ 
and righteousness ! to do righteousness himself, not to be 
slain ! it is denying the death of Christ ! and setting up cor- 
rupt man, with an experience and a work upon his heart, the 
work of death, to be instead of Christ ! to do, that is, to be 
righteousness ! Yea, they proudly say and believe that they 
are justified men, they are righteous before God ! they who 
are corrupt men in the flesh, doing all the works of the flesh, 
wrath, hatred, malice, backbiting, contention, strife, revenge, 
emulation, bitterness, even death — they who are in sin, curs- 
ed by the law for sin, with death and condemnation in their 



FAITH AND HOPS. Ill 

hearts and consciences, — they are justified, they are righteous 
before God, they have the righteousness of God, they do 
good for heaven, who do such things ! Never was there a 
generation more blinded, more wicked, and more lifted up ! 
They are justified before God by their one mental act and 
deed of believing, as they falsely call the blind and ignorant 
persuasion of their fleshly minds ! Moreover they are justi- 
fied, they are righteous before God, who deny the very 
existence of righteousness, both by the law and by Christ ! 
for they ridicule the very idea of fulfilling the righteousness 
of the law towards all men continually, and they laugh at 
the goodness of Gcd in sending His Son to fulfil all this 
righteousness in us, doing the will of God in us ! How are 
they the seed of the wicked, a corrupt and cursed generation, 
evil flesh, made righteous as they boast before God ? How 
are they justified and righteous, so that, as they speak, they 
are " encouraged to hope " that they are going to heaven 
when they die, who are cursed while they live, being under 
the law ! Even by their doing one single action ! By their 
performing one single solitary deed, one condition, which they 
falsely call faith ! a deed too, done by law and obligation, a 
duty, a condition ! Their doctrine is utter depraved wicked- 
ness, and blind brutish ignorance and folly ! It is wickedness, 
for it is the height of all wickedness and pride, that wicked 
man should persuade himself that he becomes righteous 
before God, and should expect to dwell with God in heaven, 
by his doing some little things, or by his doing anything ! 
Also, their doctrine is absolute folly, for they say they are 
righteous before God, they are going to heaven without 
being righteous at all or doing any righteousness ! For they 
are justified, they are made righteous, not by doing righteous- 
ness themselves, not by receiving Christ to do righteousness 
for them — they laugh at that — but by the pretended doing of 
an act which man has not got to do, and which is not one of all 
the righteous deeds of the law, which man has got to do ! an 
act which, even if it was faith, the very faith of God's elect, 
would not be a good nor a righteous act ! Thus hath God in 
His wisdom and just judgment confounded them, and taken 
the wise in their own craftiness ! for these very persons who 
insist upon going to heaven by doing something, rather than 
to believe, are justified as they pretend, and are going to 
heaven as they imagine, by doing something winch is abso- 
lutely nothing. It is not righteousness, it is not a good deed ! 
for if the things which a man believes are truth, how can he 
deny them ! and what good deed, what righteousness does a 



112 THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN'S 

man do, in believing that which cannot possibly be denied ? 
Thus they are justified, they are made righteous before God 
by doing something which is nothing ! and these are they 
who reject with scorn to be made righteous by the effectual 
work and power of God, we doing nothing indeed ourselves, 
but having all things done for us by Him who dwellethin us ! 
They are made righteous by doing something, but without 
any righteousness ! they make themselves righteous by doing 
indeed, but without doing one single act that is good or 
righteous before God, or even before man. Such is their 
justification by faith, and it is both wickedness and folly ! It 
is righteousness Avithout an atom or shadow of righteousness 
for earth or for heaven, from man or from God ! it is doing, 
but not doing one jot or tittle of what is good to be done ! 

They have the vanity and confidence to imagine that their 
wicked faith, falsely called faith, the deed and condition they 
perform, is a good deed, and they are very pious for doing 
it and are going to heaven for performing this condition of 
believing ! But even the true faith, the faith of God's elect, 
the gift and work and operation of God, is not a good deed, 
it is not a righteous act, it is not doing good ! Faith is not a 
good deed, it is not righteousness at all ! If it was, it would 
be doing it, for the Word of God is true, only " he that doeih 
righteousness is righteous ! " But if faith was doing right- 
eousness it would not be faith, it would be doing the right- 
eousness of the law, which is the only true righteousness, 
and then it would be the law instead of faith ! Then if it 
was the law, even doing what we ought to do, honesty would 
require us to say we were saved by the law, not by faith ! 
None but a deceiver would call it faith, and say we were 
saved by faith, saying one thing and meaning another ; say- 
ing we were saved by faith, but meaning tha w . we were saved 
by doing something ! Therefore faith is not doing good, thai 
is, righteousness, it is not doing any good which we ought to 
do, that is, the law. If it was doing, it would not be receiv- 
ing from God ; righteousness would not be the gift of God 
if faith was doing it ! Righteousness is fulfilling all the right- 
eousness of the law, there can be none other, it is doing the 
will of God. But faith is not doing the will of God, it is 
re2eiving Jesus Christ, whom God hath sent, to do it for us I 
It is receiving all from God ! we doing nothing for God, but 
He, in His love to us, doing every thing for us ! Thus faith 
is not our doing righteousness, it is receiving Jesus Christ to 
do all things for us, to do all the will of God in us. even all 
righteousness, working mightily in us' He came for this 



FAITH AND HOr*E. If 3 

purpose. " Lo ! I come to do thy will, God" But if we 
do it, and if faith is doing it, then He does not do it, God 
does not give it, and He is come in vain ! there is no hope 
for us ! there is no righteousness ! The Word of God is true ! 
we do it not, the children of men do it not, no ! not one of 
them ! God hath said it I He doeth it, and they that believe 
receive Him to do it, they do it not, they have it not to do ! 
they enter into Him, they receive Him to enter into them. 
and they are blessed ! They are blessed, for they are right- 
eous, He subdueth all their iniquities for them, He worketh 
all righteousness in them and for them, and they are blessed 
because they are righteous, for none but the righteous can be 
blessed! They are made righteous, they are justified by 
faith; not by doing something, but receiving Him to do 
every thing, they doing nothing, beholding the salvation, the 
glory of God ! how He, our God, doeth wonderful things ; 
how He exeeuteth righteousness in Jacob ! There is no God 
like unto the God of Israel ! there is no Salvation like unto 
His Salvation ! He is our Rock, their gods are not like unto 
our God, their rock and dependence, their pious man, is not 
like our Rock ! 

Thus faith is not doing righteousness and it is not a good 
deed; moreover it is not our deed and doing, it is not some- 
thing we do, nor a deed we perform, no more than making 
the sun to shine in the heavens is a something we do, no 
more than making the eyes with which we behold that light 
is something we make ! The children of God believe, but 
while they are joined with Adam, the evil man, the flesh, 
they are dull of hearing and slow of heart, and unwilling to 
believe all that the prophets have written, concerning Christ 
the Righteousness and Salvation of God! It i^ God who 
slayeth this enmity, the mind of the flesh. He maketh His 
people willing in the day of His power, and the enmity be- 
ing destroyed, they behold the love of God in Jesus Christ, 
It is no good work they do; the enmity being slain, they ean- 
not help beholding the majesty of God. The enemy man. 
the flesh, cannot know Him who is Love, but when Christ 
slays this enmity, when he opens the understanding to under- 
stand, and removes the scales from their eyes, they believe, 
but it is no good thins: they do, it is no merit to believe. For 
as the shining of the sun cannot be denied, except by those 
who are blind or mad with vain malice against the author 
of the light, so though he is a fool who denies the light which 
shines, yet he does no good who hath eyes, and sees and 
believes it ! Such is faith, it is not a deed of righteousness 
10* 



114 THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN'S 

which man does ! He, the enemy, who will not believe, is 
destroyed by the death of Christ, and His people, His mem- 
bers, the creation of God, (who but for His death never could 
enter into righteousness,) being freed from the man of sin, 
the mind of the flesh, hear and receive Him, the Life, the 
Salvation of God, and are blessed. They are cleansed from 
all siii, their consciences are purged by His blood, they know 
and believe the Love of God, which is from everlasting 
towards them, they enter into righteousness, receiving Christ 
to dwell in them, and they in Him ; being joined with Him, 
one spirit. They are righteous, being made the righteous- 
ness of God in Him, and God loveth the righteous and bless- 
eth them, and withholdeth no good thing from them. 

Men pretend to believe that God loveth and blesseth the 
righteous, but they know not the law and know not what 
righteousness is, ami they stumble at the true, the only right- 
eousness, the Christ of God ! They confess there must be 
righteousness, but it is not good for them to be made right- 
eous by the righteousness of God ! righteousness they think, 
must come from man, or else it is no righteousness ! Such is 
the diabolical pride of man, the flesh, that it is not righteous- 
ness when it comes from God, but only when it comes from 
pious man, and is his feeling and doing first ! They know not 
God and His gift, and are enemies to Him in their hearts, 
hating His love and righteousness by Jesus Christ, therefore 
they will do something, and will not believe, receiving right- 
eousness from God. 

Thus it is not a good work to believe, nor is it the work of 
man. There is no more work of man in receiving this rightr- 
eousness and having this blessing, that is, in believing, than 
there is in the earthly man's beholding the glory of the sun, 
when it shines, and receiving its warmth and being blessed 
and comforted in its rays. It is God's work that the sun 
shines ! It is His work that we have eyes and we see it, and 
we enjoy it ! it is none of our work. So also it is His work 
that we believe, it is none of our work ! " This is the work 
of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent!' There- 
fore being justified and made righteous, even spotless and 
without sin before God by faith, is receiving righteousness 
by the gift of God only ! by His Christ doing all righteous- 
ness hi us and for us ! " Therefore" as the Holy Ghost hath* 
said, " ice conclude that a man is justified by faith, without 
the deeds of the lavi" even without his doing any thing at 
all. Such is the goodness of God and the perfection of His 
glorious gift ! Thus doth Christ magnify the law and make 



FAITH AND HOPE. 115 

it honourable, for He fulfils all its righteousness in us who 
beheve in His name, even in us, who have dishonoured the 
law by continually violating it, and plunged ourselves in un- 
utterable misery, by doing unrighteousness. 

What it is to grow in Grace. Of their doctrine of "working 
from life and not for life" 

Thus we do nothing first for this blessing ; we are dead, 
and God raiseth us from the dead and gives us life and bless- 
ing in Christ ; much more, having life in Him first, we do 
nothing for it afterwards ! We receive it, even all we who 
want it ! All who want it will receive it and none others ; 
all the hungry will eat and no one else, they are the children 
and it is for them, it is sent to them, to those who are ready 
to perish. Let him that is athirst, drink of this water of 
life freely ; let him that is hungry eat, none others will, but 
they will, it is sent for them, and they shall be filled. Re- 
ceiving this bread of life, we go on to receive, even to eat 
more and more. We give nothing for it first, and much more 
being partakers of it, we give nothing for it afterwards. We 
should still be dead, we should not believe, God would not 
be with us doing all, if we had anything to do ! There is no 
end of receiving from God, there is no end of His goodness 
in giving, and His power in doing ! We receive every thing, 
He giveth every thing. — we believe ! we go on for ever hav- 
ing and receiving, and He for ever giving and giving ! This 
is growing in grace, even in righteousness, it is receiving more 
and more, knowing God and His gift, Jesus Christ His right- 
eousness more and more ! and as there is no end of His good- 
ness, there is no end of growing and increasing in the know- 
ledge and receiving of it ! He first gives for nothing, and He 
always gives for nothing ; we receive and always receive, 
trusting in Him at all times, for ever receiving and having ! 
first made alive when we were dead, by His glory and power, 
and for ever afterwards kept by His mighty power ! beloved 
in Him the Beloved, and blessed in Him the Blessed ! Be- 
loved, being righteous, for God loveth the righteous, but the 
violent man, and him that doeth evil to his neighbour, His 
soul abhorreth ! Thus we receive, and having received, we 
receive ! The doctrine of the pious Christians winch they call 
" working from life, not for life," is the same as that which 
teaches you must first do something in order to be saved ; 
only they will pay God afterwards, instead of paying at first, 
they will take on credit and pay after, instead of paying in 



116 THE PIOUS CHRISTIANS 

advance. It is the abomination of the beast, concealed with 
greater cunning' and deceit. 

The doctrine which they teach, that they undergo " a gra- 
cious work upon their hearts" and then they become pious 
nen and do good, is a lying and blasphemous doctrine. 

It is astonishing wickedness to teach as they do, that God 
has communications with the man who is sin, under the law,, 
and cursed for sin ! It is an abomination which they teach, 
that God works upon the heart of this evil one, whose heart. 
as God hath spoken, is deceitful above all things, and despe- 
rately wicked ! This evil man, the fleshly mind and heart, in 
all those who belong to Christ, who hear the Word of God 
and hearken to His reproof is slain, put to death and de- 
stroyed with Christ, instead of being worked upon, as they 
teach, by a gracious ivork, and made into a man who does 
good and goes to heaven ! Our spirits, members of Christ, the 
creation of God r in bondage to corruption, even to this evil 
man, the flesh, making with it one evil man who is sin, and 
under the law for sin, are set free from the flesh and the 
law over it, by the death of Christ, and we enter into Him 
and are one with Him in the spirit, justified and righteous in 
Him. Then being m Christ, we are brought nigh unto God 
in Him, in righteousness and true holiness. Till then God 
has no communication of grace with us, nor we with God • 
we only know Him, if at all, under the law and in the flesh, 
in fear and in wrath, in the outer tabernacle, in fleshly figures, 
signs and shadows, not believing nor comprehending His- 
Love, t] linking we must do, not willing to receive Him to do 
all ! God does not visit this fleshly perverse man, wao is 
under the wrath of the law ! He does not work upon his- 
desperately wicked heart and mind ; the doctrine they teach is 
an utter abomination ! God only visits and dwells in His Christ, 
His holy temple, who is from everlasting, the living Word, 
the heavenly man, the Lord from heaven. In Him we are 
brought nigh unto God, in Him God beholdeth and loveth 
and blesseth us, and gives us grace, in Him only, our great 
High Priest ! Until by faith, we enter into Him, having him 
to do all righteousness for us, dwelling in us, we are separated 
from God by a thick veil, we are under the law and under 
its wrath and curse, because we commit, and according as 
we commit sin. It is the abomination of the beast to teach 
that God visits and works by His Holy Spirit upon the 
murderous heart of the man, separated from God and under 
the law, a defiled pit, out of which proceed evil thoughts, 
adulteries, lasciviousness, an evil eye towards his fellow crea- 



FAITH AND HOPE. 11? 

tures, and all manner of wickedness ! Tins evil man is not 
subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can be, and the 
people, the Israel of God, while one with this man of sin. and 
subject to him, under the law and under the curse with him, 
are in captivity and death, because of sin ; they are as Christ 
was before He was glorified, even in the flesh, and not hav- 
ing received the blessing. It is only by the death of Christ, 
dying with Him unto sin, that we are delivered from being 
this evil fleshly man, and that, entering into Christ, being 
raised from the dead with Him, we enter into life and are 
justified, made righteous men in Christ, being one with Him. 
a holy man in and with Him, and no longer one with the 
flesh, a corrupt man, who is sin ; God never visits nor works up- 
on this wicked one, even man, the beast whom Christ came 
to destroy! The whole truth, the death of Christ and Hi- 
resurrection from the dead, is denied by this doctrine of ;i 
gracious work upon the heart. For if it were true, Christ 
need not have been made man and sin to deliver us from our 
bondage to sin, from being man and sin ! He need not have 
died to destroy this corrupt man, He need not have been 
raised from the dead to plant us new men in Himself, trees 
of righteousness in Him ! In their false and evil doctrine. 
they say, the corrupt man is worked upon and made into a 
good man, or as they speak, into a regenerate man ; the en- 
mity is worked upon and made into love, wickedness U 
worked upon and made into righteousness, man is worked 
upon and made into a doer of good, even into a son of God, 
a false Christ, deceiving many ! Christ need not have died 
upon the cross, if working upon man would make him into 
another man ! He need not have risen from the dead if the 
evil man became a doer of good, even righteousness, by a 
work upon his heart. Christ by His death destroyed death 
and delivered His people from "the flesh and death, in which 
their spirits were in bondage ; but by their doctrine, they 
teach that death, even sinful man, is worked upon and made 
into life, Adam is operated upon and made a living spirit ! 
They make their damnable doctrine go down smoothly and 
give it a pious look, by calling their lie "« gracious work," 
calling every thing falsely ! But though by this lie, this pre- 
tended ''gracious work" they turn the corrupt man into a 
good, pious, regenerate man, and the beast into a good new 
beast, yet the beast is still cursed, still under the law as 
before, still is a transgressor as before, having to do righteous- 
ness and not doing it, so that the gracious work is in vain and 
good for nothing ! 



118 

Vain, most vain and miserable self-deceivers ! to dream 
and to imagine that God has to do with them, and the y with 
God ! that He works upon and visits such uncleanness ! It 
is wonderful, yea, it is even wonderful that He, the Almighty, 
the God and Father of all, who made heaven and earth and 
the sea, and all that therein is, should dwell in and visit His 
Holy One, His Holy Temple, the Lord from heaven, the man 
Christ Jesus ! Thus Christ himself, His Son in whom He 
dwells in all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, saith by His 
Spirit in David, His servant, u Lord ! what is man, that Thou 
art mindful of him, or tlie Son of man, that Thou visitest 
Him ?" Yea ! it is wonderful that God should even visit 
Him and dwell in Him, the Son of man, the Holy One, the 
beginning of the creation of God, and should manifest Him- 
self and His glory in Him ! What presumption of wicked- 
ness, then, that the evil earthly man, he who is unclean, de- 
filed, sinful, brutish with iniquity, insolent with religious in- 
solence and pride, should dare blasphemously to teach men, 
as a piety by which they will go to heaven, that God visits 
this unclean beast, and works a gracious work upon the heart 
of the enemy, and thereby works him up into a righteous 
man, a doer of good, or, as they speak, makes him into a 
" regenerate man? and then he goes to church on Sundays, 
looking down with contempt upon all others who have not, 
like him, been " worked upon," and had and told an experi- 
ence ! No ! God does not work any work upon this evil 
man, who is enmity against God. He is such hateful sin, 
that instead of visiting and working upon him graciously, he 
lias been slain, put to death, and destroyed in wrath, in ter- 
rible wrath, by the fierce wrath of the law upon the cross, 
in the body of Jesus Christ. For this purpose He came 
down from heaven, from His glory with God, and was made 
flesh, made a man under the law, made sin, who knew no 
sin, made one man with this evil man, as His people and 
children are one with the flesh, that He might destroy him 
the enmity, the mind of sin, and put him to death for us, for 
ever! Of His death all His people have been partakers, 
being slain and dying with Him by the law, for sin, since the 
foundation of the world ! He has suffered with them, and 
they with Him, He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of 
the world. He has been known in the blood and in the sac- 
rifices slain upon the earth to His people, from the founda- 
tion of the world ; but until He arose from the dead and was 
glorified, His people knew not the glory of His resurrection, 
when He, the Life, in us doeth all things for us ! coming to 



FAITH AND HOPE. 119 

U3 and being in us by His Spirit ! This was the salvation 
promised, after which the saints and prophets of God searched 
and inquired diligently. For 4000 years it was not received 
by the saints of old, and for 1260 years it has been taken 
away from the saints of God among the Christians, and an 
abomination has been set up, even the evil man, to do right- 
eousness, and to save, instead of the Christ, the salvation and 
righteousness of God, who, being raised from the dead, Com- 
eth unto His people, and dwells in them, performing all 
things for them, and is their righteousness, fulfilling the 
righteousness of the law in them. 

Open blasphemous atheism is better than the deceitful, lying 
atheism of their gracious work upon their hearts. 

This doctrine of a gracious work is the most terrible of 
delusions ; it is atheism disguised in the most artful disguise ; 
there is no God, no Christ, no law of God, no truth, no right- 
eousness, to them who follow this doctrine ; but there is, in- 
stead of them all, one only thing, and that is man a sinner, 
man in hell, man feeling and suffering hell and damnation ; 
this is the substance and foundation of all ; for by a regular 
scale of steps and gradations, if this man is in hell, and feels 
it deeply and sensibly, that is enough, that is all ; he is every 
thing, he has every tiling, he has need of nothing, he will go 
to heaven ! This man, thus feeling, this devil in hell, (pro- 
vided he is beyond all doubt in hell, and that he feels it, and 
that there is no doubt of it,) is then the foundation of all, he 
is and has a title to every thing ! The process is as follows : 
If he feels that he is a sinner, if there is no doubt of it, if it 
is genuine, and he has convictions, then he has an experience ; 
then he has had a gracious work upon his corrupt heart, and 
this they call the work of the Spirit ; then if he has had this 
gracious work he is a believer ; then if lie is a believer he is 
a child of God ; then if he is a child of God he is safe, he has 
his title clear, he is going to heaven ! Thus the foundation 
of all, and the sum of all, is what this man feels, if he is and 
feels that he is, a sinner, a condemned, cursed man ; then by 
a regular gradation, he is and he has every thing. The be- 
ginning is this man in hell and damnation, and the end of all 
is heaven ; and thus, he has God, he has Christ, he has 
righteousness, he has the Spirit, he believes, he goes to 
heaven, by being a sinner, and feeling it deeply and sensibly, 
by being a man accursed, a man in hell! If such a man is 
asked, " Do you believe ?" he says he does, and he is sure he 
does ; he says, * Oh yes, for I have undergone a gracious 



120 thk pious christian's 

uxyrk upon my heart, I have experienced the work of the 
Spirit !" Has he righteousness ? " Oh yes, I have Christ, for 
I have felt a gracious work /" Thus, if he only feels that he 
is a sinner, that is every thing; he believes, and he has 
■Christ and salvation, and is going to heaven without God, 
without Christ, without righteousness, merely by this foun- 
dation of all, viz. his experience, his feeling that he is, and 
his being a sinner ! He feels it ! that is experience, that is 
evidence, that is a gracious work, that is being born again ; 
he is a believer, he is a child of God, elect, beloved, going to 
heaven ! Such a person lias not the law to obey, he need 
not seek after righteousness, for he has felt a gracious work ; 
he i« a believer of course, he is a child of God of course, to 
doubt it is unbelief ; he is going to heaven ! lie need not re- 
ceive Christ to do righteousness for him, he has had a gra- 
cious work, he is going to heaven, he is a beloved child of 
God ! And why is he going to heaven ? why is he a child 
of God? why has lie got righteousness and all he wants ? 
The answer is, because he is a believer ! And why is he a 
believer ? because lie has felt that he is a sinner, and thus has 
undergone a gracious work upon his heart; there is no doubt 
of it. it is the work of the Spirit ! And how^ does he know r 
all this ? how is he so sure of it all 'i he has the Evidence, he 
has felt an Experience ! that is, he has felt that he is a sin- 
ner, a condemned man by the law! and his feelings are so 
deep and real, that therefore all the rest is real too ! and 
there is no doubt of the gracious work, because there is no 
doubt he has felt the damnation and curse of being a sinner ! 
Thus from beginning to end, God is nothing ; it is all this 
feeling man and what he feels, and he is iniquity, and what 
be feels is iniquity, and if he feels it he is going to heaven ! 
And what is this gracious work ? It is that he has felt 
deeply and sensibly that he is a sinner, that is, he is a trans- 
gressor, he is an evil doer, he is a corrupt man, accursed by 
the law ! it all comes back to this foundation of all, viz. : if 
he is this corrupt man, if he is a hell-deserving sinner, and if 
he has felt this deeply and sensibly, all is built up and rests 
upon this foundation of sin and iniquity ! Thus the being a 
sinner, being cursed, being condemned, and feeling it, is in- 
stead of God, instead of Christ, instead of every thing ; it is 
a. gracious work, it is faith and righteousness, and election, 
and grace, and heaven, and glory ! Thus Iniquity stands 
alone, above and instead of God, and if a man is sure beyond 
doubt that he is iniquity, and feels beyond doubt that he is 
a hell-deserving sinner, that is enough ! he is going to hea- 



FAITH AND HOPE. 121 

ven ! All follows this ; and the experience of it, having felt 
damnation for being a sinner, is a sure and undoubted evi- 
dence of all ! Such a man is a pious Christian, who is fully 
persuaded that he believes every thing, without believing 
any thing ; yea, while he denies God and His Christ, and all 
His holy truth and doctrine ! for he has had a " gracious 
work upon his heart ;" so he has the Spirit, the Spirit of God, 
and knows every thing, and is taught and believes every 
thing ! and all depends upon, all flows from the one founda- 
tion, viz. : being, and feeling to be a sinner ! so that if they 
can only work themselves up to believe that they feel that 
they are dead, that they are sinners, then they are every 
thing! so that, in fact, a man has only to be a cursed and 
damned man, a sinner, a transgressor, even Iniquity, and then 
if he feels it, he is a child of God, and going to heaven, for 
feeling it is the Spirit, is God, is Christ, is every tiring, it is 
the evidence of every thing. If he feels that he does evil, 
which is not to be a child of God, then he is an undoubted 
child of God ! if he feels that he is a sinner, an unrighteous 
man, which is not to be a believer, then he is an undoubted 
believer ! if he feels that he ought to go to hell, that he is a 
hell-deserving sinner, then he is undoubtedly going to hea- 
ven, he has a title clear ! Thus to be Iniquity, to know it 
and feel it, to have damnation in the heart and conscience, 
feeling it deeply and sensibly, is salvation, and Christ, and 
the Spirit, and God, and glory ! Thus Iniquity is lifted up ! 
thus iniquity, when it is real, and undoubted, being known 
and felt deeply and sensibly, is going to heaven, really and 
undoubtedly ! Doing righteousness, fulfilling the righteous- 
ness of the law, that is, God and His Christ, is altogether out 
of the question, you must be iniquity and feel it, that is all ! 
Thus they believe not, they receive not Christ to do right- 
eousness, they will feel that they are sinners ; and then that 
is experience, that is u a gracious work" then they are be- 
lievers, and elect children of God, without God and without 
Christ, merely by being and feeling damned, without receiv- 
ing righteousness ! Pure, open, naked blasphemous Atheism, 
is better than this covered blasphemy and lying deceit of 
super- eminent evangelical piety! these are the strong delu- 
sions to which God hath given up them that love not but hate 
the truth and righteousness, even His Christ, the doer of His 
will, the doer of truth and righteousness in all them that re- 
ceive Him to be in their spirits, doing all for them, who enter 
into Him, having Him to bless and save them by righteous- 
ness ! being one with Him, believing ! 
11 



V22 the nous christian's 

Man never goes to Heaven, and never can go there ! 

Such a terrible thing is it to forsake the law ! such terrible 
delusions and follies do they fall into who forsake the law ! 
even to do right, that is righteousness and justice at all times 
to all men, as God commands men, and to do no evil to their 
neighbour ! When men set up their blubbering feelings, and 
heated, conceited fancies, their singing and going to their 
synagogues, instead of acting uprightly at all times to all 
men, they forsake God and despise His law, the righteous- 
ness which alone He delighteth in. There is no hope of 
blessing to such persons, there is no Christ to such persons ! 
For Christ and blessing is the very law itself, for He fulfill- 
eth it ! Our law, what we call the law, is merely our gross, 
fleshly, imperfect sense and perception of a good, imper- 
fectly understood, which we know ought to be done, (and 
which, even the little we know and understand, we do not 
do ;) but Christ is very Righteousness, doing it all, filling 
with truth and righteousness, with the very law of God, in 
all its holiness, beauty, and truth, with all its mercy, love, 
and meekness in action, not theory, the hearts, the spirits, 
the souls, the inward parts of all them that, hungering and 
thirsting after righteousness, receive Him to be in and to 
dwell in them ! This is the spirit of God and the work of 
God, even Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, our hearts, 
souls, minds, and spirits being one with Him, He in us and 
we in Him ; He having by His death destroyed the enmity, 
the heart and mind of the flesh, (that obstinate hatred and 
enmity by which we are determined to do, and determined 
not to receive God to do,) and made us to be one heart, 
spirit, and mind, with Himself! obedient children and sons 
of God in Him, the Holy One, the Son of God ! He dwelling 
thus in us is the Spirit and work of God ; the work upon the 
heart of man which the pious Christians talk of, is a vile 
abomination, a most deceitful lie, and odious counterfeit of 
Satan, to keep us in sin, death, and cursing, that we may re- 
main cursed men, and not be blessed, receiving Him to do 
all things for us ! In all tilings they are turned upside down ! 
Christ puts to death for us, destroys and takes away the 
heart of man, an evil heart of unbelief ; they say He makes 
it alive by working on it, that is a gracious work upon the 
lieart ! he turns it into a good one, and then the deeply-feel- 
ing, the worked-upon-beast, the old beast with his old heart 
renovated and transubstantiated into a Christ, does piety, 
and goes to heaven ! where he never goes and never can go ! 



FAITH AND HOPE. 12^» 

where none go but those who are one heart and spirit with 
Christ, dying with Him, living with Him, believing in Him ! 
Only ihis Son of God, with all His branches living in Him, 
dwells with God in heaven. 

" No man hath ascended up into heaven but He that came down 
from heaven, even the Son of man who is in heaven.*' 

This is the only man who goes to heaven, the man in 
Christ Jesus, not man! he only who is one with Christ, 
joined with the Lord, one spirit, having put off the man of 
sin, being circumcised in heart by the death of Christ, put- 
ting off the enmity ! the heart of deceit ! This man goes to 
heaven and is in heaven, for he is in Christ, and Christ i» .. 
him, and God is in Christ ! 

The prof omul deceit with which they -pretend to give all glory 
to God, and to acknowledge Him, while they deny Him, by 
this their doctrine of a gracious work upon their evil 
hearts. 

They set up themselves, corrupt men, to do good, that is, 
righteousness instead of Christ. They say they must do it, 
it is their work, their duty, to mount into heaven by doing 
something, and they do it, yea, they expect to go to heaven 
when they die ! And how do they do it ? They say they 
have had a gracious work upon their hearts, and then they 
are good men, they do good ! that is, they have got an ex- 
perience, they have felt deeply and sensibly what great sin- 
ners they are ; this is a gracious work, and then they are 
good men, they have got religion, they do piety, and are 
going to heaven ! Thus he who feels that he is a bad man. 
that is, a sinner, is made thereby a good man, and is going 
to heaven ! so that all that is necessary, in order to go to 
heaven, is to be a bad man, and to feel it, or to be a good 
man and feel that you are a bad man, that is, to feel a lie, 
and be a liar ! and with this gracious work, this lie upon 
their hearts, they are " encouraged to hope" they will go to 
heaven, because they feel deeply and sensibly that they 
ought to go to hell, that they are, as they say, hell-deserving 
sinners ! These are they who laugh at Christ's doing ali 
righteousness for His people ! these are the doers of right- 
eousness for themselves S and they do righteousness by feel- 
ing that they do wickedness, that is, that they are sinners. 
These are they who oppose the doctrine of God, even His 
Christ and His doing righteousness, who deny Christ, (for to 
deny His doing righteousness is to deny Him.) Yet, such 



124 THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN'S 

are their contradictions and lies, they pretend to confess all 
the truth they deny, they pretend in lying words to believe 
the very doctrine they oppose, and say it is Christ who has 
done all, while they utterly deny that He does any thing, 
except to work on them, in order to set them up to do all. 

They say that God has done all, it is all his gracious work ; 
but they speak a lie, for they are far from honestly meaning 
and understanding what they say, viz., that God really has 
done all. That is the very truth they fight against. They 
mean the contrary ; that they have done all ; they say they 
have it to do, it is their duty, conditions for salvation, which 
they must do. They say they do them all ; but God has 
worked upon their desperately wicked hearts, they have 
thereby become pious, and then they, the wicked, have done 
them all. They have dene it all, but it is all his gracious 
work ! They pretend to acknowledge God by the lie that 
it is he who lias set them up to do all, and it is his gracious 
work, and it is he who has made the god who does all, and 
to whom they look to do. and to save by doing. Thus they 
worship the beast, and then say they worship God, because 
they say God has made him to be so feeling and so pious, 
such a saviour and doer of good, by working " graciously " 
upon his evil heart. They set up themselves to do the work 
of Christ, despising Christ, and say with lying flattery, it is 
the gracious work of God, to set up them (instead of his only 
begotten Son,) in the shape of what they call a new, good, 
pious, altered, worked-upon man. Thus they make a false, 
sham man, an image of man, for it is an imaginary change, 
and then they say they do not trust in man to do good, it is 
this imaginary man, an image of man, their own good, pious 
selves ; for they know well it is themselves, and nothing but 
a lying man. They, in their false name and disguise of a 
deeply-feeling man, with an experience and a gracious work 
upon Ins evil heart, are the real gods who do every thing, 
and have it to do, and must do it, and who pretend to do 
good even righteousness and salvation, and who expect to 
go to heaven ; it is all a work they do, all is done and must 
be done by man, in this new shape, name and disguise of a 
feeling man, (which is an imaginary man, an image of the 
beast,) and then after all this, and after all their doing, they 
pretend it is God has done it all, they are poor sinners! 
This downright lie they call giving glory to God. Man is 
really the power and the doer, the real god and saviour, yet 
they say it is the God of Jacob, and that their trust is in 
ffim ! It is all grace, God has done all, for he has worked a 



FAITH AND HOPE. 125 

gracious work upon them, and then they have done all ! He 
has made them to be pious, regenerate men, he has made the 
image, it has done all ; but the " image fell down from Ju- 
piter," and so though they, (the image,) do all, yet God has 
done all, because he has made it to do all by a gracious work 
upon them. God, in his righteous judgment upon them that 
hate him, has sent them strong delusions, ancl they believe 
a lie, who hate the truth, and would not believe it for the 
world, even the truth that the Lord He is God, He reigneth, 
He is our salvation, He is righteousness and doeth righteous- 
ness for all his people, dwelling in them in His Christ, He 
doeth it, he saveth and blesseth ; they do it not, they save 
not, they are blessed in the God of Jacob. For this reason, 
as God hath declared by his holy prophet, in whom he spake, 
because they bless themselves in their own wicked selves, 
and not in the God of Israel, therefore God will slay them, 
the foolish nation, the foolish people, and will call his people 
by another name, his people and holy nation shall be called 
Christians no longer. 

Thus they do all, and it is all grace, and so by this lie and 
deception they say they believe in God, and that God does 
all. They believe, it is their work, something they do and 
must do, and then what they do is the grace of faith ! They 
repent, it is something they do, and then when they do it, it 
is the grace of repentance ; they become good, pious, regene- 
rate men, by getting convictions and an experience, and then 
it is the grace of regeneration, it is a gracious work upon 
their hearts. Thus they are the gods, the doers, the saviours, 
and all by the grace of God ; and the grace of God and his 
gracious work is this, that he sets up man, an unclean, pol- 
luted creature, accursed by the law, which he tramples under 
foot, instead of seeking to fulfil — he sets up this beast by 
his grace and gracious work, to be the god and saviour in- 
stead of himself. And this diabolical wickedness and deceit- 
ful sin they call evangelical piety, the Christian religion, the 
glorious gospel, calling every thing falsely, delighting in lies. 
They dishonour God doubly, first bitterly denying his grace 
and work by Jesus Christ, and then again by saying that the 
works which they, wicked men, have done, are God's works, 
for he has worked " graciously " upon their hearts, and then 
they have done them, and that is God. They set up them- 
selves instead of Christ, to do the works of God, and to be 
instead of Christ, and say God has done it by working a 
work on their hearts. Thus, as the prophet Daniel spake of 
thi3 beast, it speaks more stoutly and more blasphemously 
11* 



126 THE TI0C8 CHRISTIANS 

than the first beast, for the doctrine of the second, the 
deceiving beast, is more bold blasphemy than that of the 
first, the violent beast. 

They are filled with the spirit of confusion, lying and con- 
tradiction ; it is as God spake of them, the city of confusion. 
They laugh at the truth of God, namely, that " he executeth 
righteousness in Jacob;" that he, by his Christ, his Word, 
doeth all righteousness for his people, dwelling in us, " God 
with us," so that God doing it, we stand still and have it not 
to do. At this, the very truth of God, they seoif and laugh. 
Then, after refusing to believe in God to do, after pretending 
to do themselves, yea, and believing they have done piety 
enough to go to heaven, then they pretend to give all glory 
to God, and utter the lie of saying that God hath done ah ! 
Thus to have God really to do all and his people to do nothing, 
is to them foolish and ridiculous; but a lie, saying falsely 
that God has done all, when they have done it — that is pious, 
that is not foolish ; it is deep humility, it is giving all glory 
to God. Thus they are as God spoke of them, completely 
turned upside down. A manifest lie, viz., to say God has 
done ail, when they have done it and had it all to do, is 
solemn, serious truth and piety ; and the very truth of God, 
that God does all by Jesus Christ, is a laughable and con- 
temptible lie. 

Their whole labour is to appear to confess the very truth 
wdncli they stoutly oppose and deny ; therefore their constant 
toil and effort is to fit the Scriptures to their schemes. That 
is in fact, they will not obey God and submit to Him, but 
they will make God and His truth submit to them. There is 
witchcraft most bewitching in rebellion. They that do not 
obey the truth are bewitched. They labour hard to set up 
the doctrine of man, which they love, and yet so as to remain 
professors of the doctrine of Christ, which they hate. There- 
fore, while in their scheme it is sinful man, the man of sin, 
who begins, performs and carries on all the work, while he 
does all, and has it all to do, he takes care to explain, art- 
fully, cunningly and deceitfully, that it is God who does all, 
to Him be all the glory, uttering a deliberate lie with an ap- 
pearance of extraordinary humility and solemn religion. 
They who stoutly deny the righteousness of God, that it is 
he who, by His Christ, does it all, they who will not receive 
righteousness from God, who scoff thereat, and set them- 
selves up to do it, who pretend to feel it and to do it, (yet 
not doing it, evil men, and rejecting Christ to do,) they say 
they do it, and then after their pious doing, filled with eia, 



FAITH AND HOPE. 127 

tion and joy of the fleshly mind at what wonders they think 
they have done, with horrid deceit and feigned humility, 
they turn up their eyes to heaven, and thank God and say 
that God has done it all. This is wicked mockery of God. 
After they have exalted themselves, evil beasts, to do the 
work of Christ, rejoicing in themselves for what they have 
done and felt, then they acknowledge God, and the very 
truth they deny ; and loudly profess that he has done all, it is 
all his grace, his gracious work upon their wicked hearts. 
Thus God comes after them. After the man of sin, (the man 
who committeth sin,) has taken care to show himself that he 
is God, and does all, then, after that, God may be God alto- 
gether for what they care ; they do not mind how much they 
acknowledge him then; they are very liberal in flattering 
God, after themselves. 

They audaciously assert that their earthly deeds, their 
piety and substitute for true righteousness, their feelings and 
ecstacies of pride and self-contemplation, their puffed-up sen- 
sations, their swelling emotions, their fear, their terror, their 
guilt, their condemnation, all the feelings and workings of 
their corrupt, fleshly minds, and the pious exercise of giving 
vent to them all, and talking and boasting of them, (which, 
with suitable solemn and awful looks, constitute their emi- 
nent piety and religion,) all this they blindly and boldly say 
is the gracious work of the Spirit of God upon their corrupt 
and wicked hearts. To work up, and excite these feelings 
and animal sensations, is to experience a change, to get re- 
ligion, to become regenerate, to be born again, to be true 
believers. And to have these vile feelings and putrid sen- 
sations, is the Evidence that they are believers. And they 
boast that God has done all this gross and abominable sen- 
suality, to him belongs all the glory, for all this is the gra- 
cious work of the Spirit upon their evil minds and hearts. 
" Sensual, not having the Spirit, boasting of a false gift, wells 
without water" 

Herein is the art, cunning and subtlety of the devil mani- 
fest in them. They will talk sweetly for hours together of 
the goodness of God, of his grace and love, and wonderful 
mercy. To hear them using such words, one would think 
they believed in what they talked about, whereas they have 
turned the truth into a lie, and mean the very contrary of 
all they talk about. When they talk of goodness, they sig- 
nify selling and buying ; that God will perhaps give some 
goodness ; there is a chance of it, provided you pay for it 
first, and do something for it first. When they speak of 



128 the pious christian's 

Grace, they signify their own doings, and piety and feelings, 
which are, as they blasphemously say, the gracious work of 
God upon their murderous hearts. Thus they deceive men, 
by speaking lies with words of truth, for the truth of God is 
turned by them into a lie, and is a he in their mouths. They 
utter their lies in the very words of truth, and fight against 
God in his own name, and under his own banners. They 
talk of God, and his grace and goodness, after they have first 
enthroned the beast, man. Tney care not then how liberally 
they pretend to acknowledge God, they will then confess all 
they have previously denied, and care not then how free and 
ample they represent his Grace. They wish to keep their 
own order of things, viz., first man, then God; first man does 
something, and then, after that, God may be God. Any one, 
to hear them, would imagine they believed in God, and so 
they do, after man. They deceive themselves effectually 
and are thoroughly, fully and sincerely deceived, for they 
verily believe that their ways are right. They mock God, 
in thinking they give glory to Him. But God is not deceived, 
God is not mocked with impunity by the creatures He has 
made ; and they shall know it. 

Thus, with profound deception, they appear to give all 
glory to God, while they give all glory to themselves. Thus 
bj this doctrine of a gracious work upon their hearts, they 
set up their altered, changed, good, regenerate selves, man, 
by another name, instead of his old name, an image of the 
beast instead of the beast itself; and after doing all, and glo- 
rifying themselves, they say it is all the grace of God, it is 
all his goodness, for it is his gracious work upon their hearts, 
whereby they, regenerate man, the image of the beast, is set 
up instead of Christ. It is all grace, whereby they are 
exalted first above God and his Christ to do wonders, and 
ascend to heaven. The word of the Lord shall destroy them 
and their works, they shall flee before Him in fear and terror, 
and be scattered like chaff before the wind. Now consider 
this ; and they that are wise will consider. 

Of using the means, or the Cart-Rope doctrine of the pious 
Christians. 

They set up pious man, a proud, unclean and violent 
beast, as the first power, and make God and His Christ 
a subordinate power and agent to him, aiding him to do 
great things ! Man is first, he begins and does the work, 
and God comes after as a help to him, to do the won- 
derful good which he says he does ! What that good is 
which he does by the grace of God, as he blasphemous- 
ly says, the annals of Christianity, reeking with blood, 



FAITH AND HOPE. 129 

and the present state of the earth, plainly show ! It is not 
enough for them to make God a liar, saying that the children 
of men do good, when God hath said they do not, but they 
add the blasphemy of saying, not merely that they do it, 
but they do it by the means and instrumentality of God, 
making God himself, a means, an instrument, a tool in their 
hands, a shadowy influence at their disposal, and if they 
please to do so, they use the means, and do righteousness 
and go to heaven ! It is the abomination ! Instead of Christ 
the righteousness of God, the doer of all righteousness in His 
Israel, circumcised and made free from the filthy Adam, to 
whom they were in bondage, they set up this Adam, corrupt 
man, a beast, or his vile image, the regenerate man, instead of 
Christ. They blasphemously represent God as acting as an 
instrumentality to them corrupt flesh. They say His grace, 
HLs Christ, is" as it were a rope let down from heaven, a 
means in the power of wicked man, winch he uses, and 
thereby is pulled up to heaven, provided he will only use 
the means of grace, provided he the unclean one, the enemy 
will lay hold of the cart-rope, and go to heaven ! Tins is 
their going to heaven by the grace of God ! They go there if 
they will, and they use God as it were a cart-rope to draw 
them up there, if they will ! if they will condescend to use 
the instrument, and be saved by His instrumentality ! Thus 
Satan, in man the enemy, is exalted above God ! and this 
exaltation of wickednessabove God is wonderful piety and 
evangelical religion ! Thus they make the Almighty God 
and His Christ, subservient to the will and pleasure of man, 
an instrument at his disposal, to be used by him if he will, 
and thus they teach that the wicked one goes to heaven by 
the grace of God ! and it is all by his instrumentality ! He 
i3 to them an instrument, as it were a cart-rope ! Then they 
exclaim " Glory be to God." We do not do good ! oh, no ! we 
are such poor miserable hell-deserving sinners," we only do 
good by using the means by "as it were a cart-rope," by the 
instrumentality, by the grace of God ! Thus the Christ of God 
is as it were a rope let down from heaven at their disposal, 
there it hangs ! that is the means, that is the grace of God ! 
and wicked man, if he chooses, condescends to lay hold of it 
and to use the means and go to heaven ! Thus God him- 
self, in His glory, His Christ, is merely an impotent rope and 
machine which is set in motion by the will and power of man, 
and if he even he the cruel and bloody beast, will only con- 
descend to put forth his will and his power, and lay hold of 
the rope with his defiled, unclean hands, he will be drawn up 



180 THE FIOUS CHRISTIAN'S 

into heaven ! Such is the abomination and blasphemy of what 
they call religion and piety ! 

Thus have they in their pride and wisdom exalted them- 
selves above God! Thus have they invaded heaven, and 
stand with their abominations where they ought not ! Let 
him that readeth understand ! God hath known them alar off, 
and all the prophets have prophesied of them and of this 
time ! Thus, as the prophet Isaiah spoke of them, — yet, not 
lie, but the Spirit of Christ which was in him — they sin as it. 
were with a cart-rope! They entice, they persuade, they 
urge, they whip, they threaten, and labour to draw iniquity, 
even sinful man, the evil beast and slow belly, with cords of 
vanity. They try to make him move, to become pious, they 
draw him along with all sorts of pervasions, and tell him ho 
is moving by the grace of God! Th-ey call upon him to use 
the means to lay hold of the rope. They tell him what a good 
thing it will be for him if he w T ill only become pious, and take 
their mark and number of their name, how he will rise in the 
world, will save money, will become respectable, he will 
have friends, lie will get on in business, and he will go to 
heaven ! Thus they draw iniquity. Thus the prophet spake 
of them saying, 

'•Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin 
as it were with a cart-rope V 

Thus the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. 
Such is the pit into which the wisdom and pride of the religious 
man of the Earth leads him when rejecting the rain from hea- 
ven, he sets up to bring forth fruit by his own inventions. God 
hath rained down snares upon them, who w T ere determined to 
force themselves into heaven by being eminently pious, by their 
doing something, at their own will and pleasure, without 
righteousness, without His Christ, — by their piety ! Good 
w r ere it for that man who sets at naught the Son of God 
despising His holy doctrine, and yet pretends to love Him, 
making money by His name, if he had never been born ! 
These are the pious people that made not God their strength, 
but trusted in their own powers and resources, who scoff at 
Christ and mock at His doing righteousness in His people, 
the righteousness of God, the strength of Israel ! They scoff 
at God and His righteousness, at His mighty work in His peo- 
ple, they will not hear of it, nor waste a moment to inquire 
or think of it ! It is too contemptible in their eyes ! In the 
pride of their countenance they will not seek nor inquire ! 
They are indignant at the contempt put upon man as they 



FAITH AND HOPE. 1ST 

call it ! TLey say " What ! are we to be mere machines ! 
moved by the hand and power of another ?" Yet they who 
bra so indignant at the dishonour put upon themselves of 
being mere machines moved at the will of another, — they 
make God himself a mere machine moved at their will, and 
if they will and as they will ! Vain men ! they know not the 
glory of being filled with God ! of being a machine, an instru- 
ment, a vessel filled with God, a vessel of glory and of mercy, 
branches in Christ, filled with Him, moved by His Spirit, the 
Spirit of God, yea, moved by the Holy Ghost ! They hate 
dod, and His love, and His mercy, and therefore turning all 
things upside down, rather than to belong to God, and to be 
filled and moved by Him, they make the Almighty God and 
His Grace, His Christ, to be a machine, a rope, an instru- 
ment, moved by them at their will ! Thus they dishonour 
God and trample His Christ under their feet in order to save 
their dignity, the dignity of human nature. 

Thus the Earth, the religious world, as God spoke of them 
long before is turned upside down. Holy men of God — 
members of Christ Jesus, the Son of God, the Holy One, chil- 
dren of God in Him, not the children of Adam— were informer 
times moved by the Spirit of Christ and of God, to speak and 
behave, and live and act, and write, for they were instruments, 
yea machines, holy vessels of God, made clean by the blood 
of Jesus Christ, and their sins taken away by His death — 
(which, that it was accomplished for them, God showed to them 
from the foundation of the world by the sacrifice of bulls and 
of goats) — they were instruments of God, blessed and filled 
with Him, performing all things in and for them. It was not 
as the Christians teach, that God was an instrument to them ! 
They submitting themselves to God, receiving him with joy 
and earnest longing to be in them, and with them, and work 
in them — that is believing in his name, — they were moved of 
God, who acted, spoke and worked in them and by them, being 
with them and in them, according to His will and the measure 
of the gift of Grace. It was God who spoke, God who worked by 
and in them, by the right hand of His Righteousness, His Christ 
in whom He dwells, and who was in them. Thus Christ says to 
His people, "It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of my Father, 
{and that is the Spirit of Christ,) which speaketh in you." But 
now in this time of abomination, at this end of the Time, the 
consummation of abomination and desolation, the Christians 
zealously, devoutly, and as a great religious merit and piety, 
teach quite the reverse, the upside down of the truth, being 
turned upside down, confusing, confounding and perverting 



132 THE PIOUS christian's 

all things, (but God will restore all things.) It is not in their 
doctrine, God, who is God ! It is not God who doeth and 
worketh in His people, His Israel, His beloved, whom he filleth 
and moveth by Jesus Christ, the life in them, His living 
Word, — doing all righteousness in them, having circumcised 
and cleansed them by taking away the filthy flesh and conde- 
scending in His grace and love to fill them and be with them, 
and dwell in them and bless them — it is not God who dwelleth 
in Jacob, executing righteousness ! no ! but it is wicked ffiari, 
the beast without God, this putrid lump of infamy and crime, 
whose life and soul and spirit consists in hatred, lust, adultery 
and denial of God his Maker who hath put the breath m 
his nostrils, — it i- tins one, the wicked one, the man of sin, 
for he is sin, it is this enemy of God and of all righteousness 
who hath God for his instrument, and who doeth and worketh 
the righteousness of God, even that spotless righteousness 
which alone is in heaven, — he himself, the unclean beast, 
pretends that he doeth this righteousness himself, he doeth 
good, and God is the instrument and means by winch he 
does it, aiding and assisting him the beast to do and glorify 
himself. Thus Christ is not the righteousness of God, but 
he is only a secondary agent and instrument of righteousness 
to man, by which man does righteousness if he will ! Man 
does it, and God stands at a distance and helps him now and 
then]! Thus the pious Christians do good ! Thus they move 
and "draw Iniquity, sinning as it were with a cart-rope. 



CHAPTER XV. 

OF THE WORSHIP OF THE BEAST AND HIS IMAGE. 

The pious Christians, as the Lord Jesus Christ revealed of them, 
are worshippers of the beast and his image. They make an 
image to the beast, that is an imaginary man, for a man, and 
have him to do righteousness instead of Christ, pretending that 
it is not man. 

Man cannot do righteousness for heaven, that is, he cannot 
save, he cannot work salvation, in any shape ; there is no salva- 
tion but of God, and it is His Son, Jesus Christ, who is right- 
eousness, doing it in all them that believe. The two beasts (the 
two earthly organizations of the religious doctrine of religious 
man,) say this is not true, man does 'good and goes to heaven, 
thus they say salvation is of man. They both set up man the 
beast, but in two different and diverse shapes, and then quarrel 
with each other, each maintaining that his own lie is the truth. 



FAITH AND HOPE. 183 

The first says the beast himself does good, even good for heaver . 
The second says: " No ! that is not the truth, that is not evan- 
gelical Christianity, evil man does not do good, he is quite dead . 
it is not man who does righteousness, and works salvation, it is 
another man, it is not the beast, it is the image of the beast ! The 
first teaches that man indeed is a sinner, but he repents, he is 
wounded for his sins, it is a deadly wound by the sword of the 
law, then he weeps, and mourns, and does penance, and after 
that he is healed of his deadly wound, which he had by die 
sword of the law, he lives, he does good, becomes a great saint, 
and goes to heaven ! The second beast says this is all false . i 
is all wrong, it is setting up man to do good and be saved by 
his works, it is not the Gospel, it is denying Christ, it is the doc- 
trine of Antichrist ! Then he says man is quite dead, he the 
unclean beast does not do good at all, no ! not at all, he is so 
corrupt ! Thus he rejects the doctrine of the beast, and triumphs 
greatly over the first beast, and then sets up an abomination 
more vile, more deceitful, and more blasphemous than the doc- 
trine he overthrows, teaching men in a more deceitful way to 
worship the very same beast, the first beast, by making an 
image for and instead of it. He says man is quite dead and 
corrupt, he cannot do good, but he is worked upon, he under- 
goes a gracious work, he gets an experience, he feels convictions 
tor sin, and then he, the beast, is made into a new, good, re- 
generate man ! Then having made this imaginary man out of 
themselves, they say: "Oh! what grace! what wonderful 
grace ! it is all the gracious work of the Spirit, who has worked 
upon the murderous heart of the dead beast ;" even man, dead 
by the law, dead to God, dead to peace and to all truth and 
righteousness. Thus they make out of themselves an imagin- 
ary man for man, and then say, " we do not trust in man to do 
good, no ! it is the regenerate man !" Thus they by this fiction 
resort to themselves and their works for salvation, and say 
" they are not saved by works/'' no ! not they, but wholly by 
grace, for they are regenerate men, and have felt a gracious 
work ! It is themselves but it is their '*' regenerate " selves ! 
Yet they know it is themselves, and nothing but man ! It is a 
iictitious man, an imaginary man, an image for the beast, made 
out of themselves, by pretended feelings and a lying work ; they 
are worshippers of the beast and his image as the Lord re- 
vealed ; for man and their regenerate man, is nothing but man, 
a new false lying name of man, 

The deceit with which the second beast sets up the abomina- 
tion of the first beast which it denies. 

Instead of looking for Christ to be righteousness, doing it all 
in us Himself, (we not doing it.) the pious Christians look to 
themselves to do it, and say that His salvation is to work on 
them, so that they become another and different sort of men, 
and then they evil men do good and go to heaven, that is are 
12 



134 THE PIOUS christian's 

blessed. Thus they make an image of the beast, saying they 
are turned into a different sort of men, and it is all the work of 
the Spirit, a '-gracious work upon their hearts!" If this was 
the Salvation of Christ, the saints of old need not have waited 
for Christ with earnest longings as they did ! He need not have 
come to dwell m us and we in Him, being the life and right- 
eousness in us, doing righteousness for us ! His death and work 
and suffering was all unnecessary according to this abominable 
doctrine, for as they say, merely working upon the wicked 
heart of man accomplishes all that he came and suffered in order 
to accomplish : evil man does all instead of Him, being worked 
upon and turned into a regenerate man, a new and different 
sort of man, and then he does good and obtains the Blessing! 
'This making a man out of man to do good instead of receiving 
Christ to do it, who came on purpose to do it, is the enmity of 
the tiesh against God and His righteousness! even of the man 
who being in wrath under the law, will do, and hates the Love 
which gives and does all things for us! This enemy hating 
i rod's righteousness, must and will have something to do him- 
self, (he is proud and wicked,! he will not receive Christ to do 
all to be everlasting righteousness and blessing in and unto 
him, instead of himself who is everlasting cursing to himself; but 
he loves death, he loves his own doing, he insists upon death, 
upon being under the law, and having to do, not receiving God 
10 do, not believing, hating the Salvation of God! Therefore 
he will not receive Christ to do righteousness in him, and for 
him, he doing nothing. But he says he must do it himself, (yet 
lie never does it, and it never is done !) He hides, however, 
his enmity in cunning lies from himself and others, for he wants 
to be thought a wonderful believer in Christ, and to believe 
without believing. Therefore he invents this doctrine of the 
Image of the beast, so as to appear to deny man and his doing, 
and acknowledge Christ, and yet at the same time to set up man 
to do, and no one else ! He first denies man, he says man does 
not do good, he cannot doit, he has it not to do, Christ is tnf; only 
Saviour! After this it seems impossible to him that he can be 
otherwise than a true believer, for here he admits the true doctrine,, 
and totally denies the doctrine of the first beast, who sets up 
j nan to do and to save ! Then deceived into a firm conviction 
of his own truth, he proceeds boldly after this to build up in a 
worse form, the very same false doctrine of the first beast, 
which he before had destroyed. He does this by making ano- 
ther man, an image for man instead of him, and calling the 
image, the regenerate man, he says: "man does not do good , 
no ! not at all ! he has not to do good for heaven I no indeed ! 
but the regenerate man can, he has to do good for heaven .'" 
Thus by making an image for man instead of man, he sets up 
man in this false name, and sets up the abomination of man, the 
beast instead of Christ, as fully and with greater deceit than 
the first beast. With this name and image he asserts and 
establishes all that he denied and overthrew before. Now 



FAITH AND HOPE. 135 

then man does good, he must do it, he does so nettling in order 
to go to heaven, he must do his something, God is not, but then 
" it is not man, oh no ! it is regenerate man !" With this image of 
man he denies the righteousness of God, His Grace His Christ. 
the same as the first beast, setting up man the abomination, and 
his doings and swine-offerings just the same ! Now he says 
Christ is not the Saviour, He does not do all righteousness for 
us, He is not the Christ, we must do righteousness ourselves, we 
must do all ourselves, but then ' it is not man, oh no ! we do 
not trust in man, it is the regenerate man .'" Thus he makes 
an image to the beast, and sets him up, an abomination, instead 
of the beast whose deadly wound was healed, and says to men 
that they must make an image to the beast, they must get a 
gracious' work upon their hearts, they must get a change of 
heart— that is they must do and not believe— and if they do not 
make the image they cannot be saved ! Thus they set up man 
the abomination in this new name and disguise, and thus they 
deny Christ the salvation, the righteousness of God, the doer of 
truth and righteousness in the inward parts of them that receive 
Him, dwelling in them ! Then with cleceit they pretend to ac- 
knowledge Christ, for though the beast in his imaginary form 
and other name, does ail and has all to do, yet it is all Christ, it 
is all His doing, for he has worked a gracious work upon the 
heart of the beast, and then the beast, being changed or having 
a new bias, does good— even righteousness himself as he ought 
to do ! This they teach is the salvation of Christ ! viz : that man 
does righteousness and Christ has worked him up to do it, to be a 
Christ, the doer of righteousness for heaven instead of himself! 
and all this is the gracious work of God and His Spirit ! and so 
in this new name the beast of evil does good, the beast of un- 
righteousness does righteousness and goes to heaven ! And it 
is not man, it is not the evil-doer, no ! it is man altered ! man 
worked upon ! the evil one become a good one ! it is not man, 
it is the regenerate man, not man without an adjective put to 
his name, but manwith an adjective/' regenerate man," who does 
good for heaven, even everlasting righteousness, and obtains by 
his doing everlasting blessing ! Thus they effectually trample 
down and despise the Lord Jesus Christ ! and exalt man above 
God and His Christ ! It is the deepest, profbundest delusion and 
art of the devil ! While they pretend to love Christ, they deny all 
His work, His blessing and righteousness ! and set up the beast 
in another name above him, to be instead of Him, to do all the 
work he came to do! Yea, setting up to be a Christ and a 
Saviour, the very beast of sin which Christ put to death on the 
cross, in His own body on the tree, to deliver us from him, 
even from ourselves, our enmity, our lusts, our pride, and 
wantonness, that we who are cursed in the condemnation of this 
evil doer, may be blessed in the righteousness of Him, the 
Holy and righteous One, the Christ of God ! 

]\o delusion more abominable or more deceitful has ever been 
invented than this image of the beast, a man to do good, to work 
salvation instead of God and His Christ ; and it is man, and yet it 



136 THE PIOUS CHRISTIANS 

is not man, and they do not trust in man, no not at all ! and man 
does all, and yet it it is not man! and they cannot do good, and yet 
they can and they do ! and they have not got to do good for heaven , 
it is all grace, it is not man ; and yet they have it to do and must do 
it, and do it, it is all man ! but then it is " regenerate man," and so 
it is not man ! It is setting up the Wicked One even man, sinful 
man, the man of sin, the abomination, an unclean beast, before and 
above and instead of Christ and of God It is the abomination 
of the first beast, in an evangelical disguise, in the most frightful 
deception ! It is the beast out of the pit of the earth, an inven- 
tion of the pious beast, a bottomless pit of deceit and iniquity ! 
By means of this image they have man and none but man, tor 
their God and Saviour, they have no God to save, they refuse 
Him whom God hath sent to do and to be righteousness for and 
i.i us, they have all to do themselves, they have no God but 
man, and it is not man oh no ! far from it, it is the regenerate 
man ! Thus they abide in man, in death, under the law, under 
the curse, having to do righteousness and never doing it, never 
blessed, but far from blessing. Yet they pretend all the while to 
have life, for they have made the image, they are therefore re- 
generate men, they have had an experience, a gracious work, 
and are sure therefore that they are in life, even in Christ, having 
righteousness and blessing, while they are burnt up and con- 
sumed with terrors, while they are cursed, and also they confess 
it for they are continually telling each other how deeply and 
sensibly they feel the curse and feel the sting of death, (for they 
are dead) even sin ! 

Thus the two beasts, the two religious powers which reign 
over the world, having established a religious dominion over men, 
representing severally two different doctrines, one (the first beast,) 
the common doctrine of man in all ages, viz : that man does good 
and goes to heaven by labour; the other professing the doctrine 
of truth, that Blessing is not by the labour of man, but by Grace, 
even the gift and doing of God, —these two beasts one from the 
sea, (the world at large, 1 the other sprung up from the earth, 
(those who profess the true doctrine and worship of the only true 
God)— both instead of worshipping God set up the worship of 
man instead , trusting in him and his power for blessing, not 
trusting in God ! It is the same beast they worship, but in dif- 
ferent disguise ; the first worships him healed of his deadly 
wound, setting him up to become an astonishing saint, the second 
will not suffer him to be healed of the wound, but sets him up 
to be an astonishing sinner ! The first maintains he becomes 
good and a triumpning saint, the second represents him as a 
mourning sinner. Yet it is the same beast, the same creature to 
which they look for blessing and not to God The second beast 
has never represented him as healed of his deadly wound like the 
former, but on the contrary this beast rejoices and delights in his 
wound and abominates the doctrine of the first beast, that the 
wound is healed The first beast, will , by meritorious works, ascend 
into heaven to bring Christ down ; the second, more humble, will 
descend into hell to get Him there ! 



FAITH AND HOPE. 18? 

This is the second beast which deceiveth men, unlike the 
first beast which rules by violence ; it is deceitful, being " like 
a lamb," but it speaks like a dragon, pouring forth fire and 
brimstone upon men from its mouth, telling them that is the 
" glorious gospel." This is the beast from the Earth, which 
as the Lord Jesus Christ- revealed, deceives man by its 
miracles of piety, which are great and admirable in the sight 
of man, but are an abomination before God. Thus hath the 
Lord revealed, this wonderful mystery of iniquity, of this 
beast which 

4i Deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those mi- 
racles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to 
them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the 
beast which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had 
power to give life to the image of the beast, that the image of the 
beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship 
the image of the beast should be killed.' 1 

Unlike all other images which men have ever made and 
looked to with love and admiration, this is a speaking Image, 
and a living one. It is very talkative and very lively. AIL 
its life consists in telling its experience and what a great 
sinner he feels he is, what wonderful things he has felt, and 
how deeply and sensibly ; how he has prayed ; with what, 
wonderful power certain passages of Scripture came to his 
mind, and what astonishing feelings he has had, and what a 
hell deserving sinner he feels he is. When he can be worked 
up to feel, or to think he feels guilt and sin and condemnation, 
he rejoices, he feels sure he is a child of God, he has an un- 
doubted experience, that is a sure evidence, and the more lie 
feels that he is a hell-deserving sinner, the more life he feels. 
and the more sure he is that he is going to heaven ! Thus they 
give life to the image of the beast, thus the regenerate, sham- 
new, good, pious man, (which is man with another name, an 
imaginary good man, an image of man) rejoices in his life and 
speaks ; for the image speaks — he is always speaking of him- 
self and his feelings. Thus this beast gives life to the image of 
the beast, the regenerate man, and says he does good, that is. 
he lives. It does not give life to the beast, which the other says 
is healed of his original sin and then lives, that is, he does 
good and goes to heaven. This beast always strenuously 
opposes that doctrine, even the doctrine of man, being healed 
of his sins and becoming a doer of righteousness. It says 
man does not live, he does not do good, but the regenerate 
man does good, that is, he gives life to the image of the 
beast. Therefore men seek for life, not from Christ, but from 
12* 



138 the pious christian's 

the image of the beast ; they seek not to receive Him the 
righteousness of God to come unto them to do righteous- 
ness for and in them, but they labour to get an experience, 
to become regenerate men, that so they may have hie in them- 
selves, not from and in Him, the Way, the Truth and the Life. 
Also they kill men, for they tell them, " Oh ! if they do not 
get an experienced they do not feel a gracious work upon their 
hearts ! there is no hope for them, they will certainly be damn- 
ed, they are not born again, they have not had the work of the 
Spirit, they have not got experimental religion ; thus they kill 
men in their consciences, and men are driven by their delusions 
and lies to try to make an image to the beast, to try to get an 
experience and to feel desperately wicked, that they may 
become imaginary good new men and go to heaven ! Tims 
they destroy men, who instead of seeking after righteousness 
and to do and to keep the commandments of God by the faith 
of Jesus Christ, try hard to feel that they are great sinners and 
to have and to feel wickedness enough that they may feel sin 
and condemnation, and so have an experience and a gracious 
work, and deceive themselves by thinking they are altered 
and other men, and going to heaven ! 

How God revealed this wickedness of old by His prophets ! 

Thus both the women are determined to lift up the talent, the 
heavy lump of lead to heaven between them both, as God 
revealed by the prophet. (Blessed are they who are not defil- 
ed by these women !) And God said of their piety, their doing 
good, and thereby lifting up man, or changed and altered man, to 
neaven. " This is wickedness,'' and it is this wickedness which 
they call piety, religion, and vital godliness! God also said. 
" This is their resemblance hi all the earth" for so it is, that all 
the piety and religion of man, all his wonderful doing is the 
yame thing, it is not faith in God, it is not trusting in Him to do 
and to give, it is the proud insole?n labour and toil of wicked 
man, the heavy lump of lead, to lift himself up to heaven by 
whoredom, by the piety, works, and doing, and feelings, with 
which the harlot churches teach him to decorate and adorn him- 
self, that he may seek love ! The first beast toils to lift him up 
to heaven as man, such as he is, after he has been healed of his 
deadly wound, and done penance for all his sins, for which he 
suffered the deadly wound by the sword of the law. But the 
other beast- says "no, that will never do, he must be worked 
upon and altered, and made into anew regenerate man ! which 
their doctrine, as the Lord revealed, is making an image to the 
beast, an imaginary man, a sham-new man, an image to man. 
They make it to or for the first beast, so that they can say they 
do not trust in man, they do not worship the beast, it is not man 
to whom they look to do good, no ! it is transmuted, altered, 



FAITH AND HOPE. 139 

worked-upon-man, it is the regenerate man. Thus they make 
an image to the beast, a sham-new man, and teach men that, 
they must make this image which they falsely call a change of 
heart, they must become " regenerate men," or if not, it kills 
them, telling them they cannot hope to be saved. The first 
beast says that unaltered man, being healed of his sins, of his 
deadly wound by the sword of the law on his conscience, does 
good by the grace of God ! The second says that altered, chang 
ed, worked-upon-man, does good by the ' : gracious work " of 
God upon his heart ! It is the same beast they trust in, and look 
to for good, even to do good, and go to heaven ; with the first, it 
is man without disguise, with the second it is altered, changed, 
or as they call him, regenerate man, even man under anocher 
name, and in disguise. Both are a lie. One is man the beast., 
the other is a sham-new man, an image to the beast The one 
is the worshipper of the beast, the other is the worshipper ot the 
beast and his image. 

The way they make the Image to the beast. 

The origin of this imaginary man which they make by their 
doctrine, this regenerate man, even their own good, altered, 
pious, regenerate selves, is wickedness and blasphemy. They 
dare blasphemously to say that God has direct communication of 
love and grace with the vile, unclean, murderous man, with him 
who is cursed by the law, and under its wrath and condemna- 
tion ! God visits the beast, and works a gracious work upon his 
heart ! a heart which God hath declared is deceitful above all 
things, and desperately wicked, a pit of iniquity unfathomable, 
so that none can know ail its depths ! God works upon the pit, 
upon the enemy, upon him who spurns God, and the knowledge 
ot His ways from him ! And the " gracious work" is, that the 
man gets convictions for sin and feels condemned, that is, damn- 
ed for being a sinner ! Thus the gracious work is, that the man is 
cursed, ancf he finds it out, or pretends to do so, he feels it deeply 
and sensibly, and being in death and damnation by a " gracious 
work," he pronounces sentence upon himself, and says he is a 
hell-deserving sinner! To feel this horror, curse, death, and 
damnation, they call ' the gracious work of God !" being turned 
upside down, and teaching that the grace of God bringeth dam- 
nation, instead of salvation. 

Now if the man feels deeply and sensibly that he is a sinner, 
he has experienced a " gracious work," he has got an experience, 
he has felt convictions, he has got religion ! He is now a convert- 
ed man, he is an altered man, a man still, but a man made into 
another sort of man, he is born again, he has experienced a 
change of heart, he is a regenerate man I now he is a new, pious 
man, he does good, he goes to church on Sundays, and he is 
going to heaven when he dies ! and he who now does good is 
not man, it is " pious man," man with an adjective to his name, 
<fc regenerate man." Thus man. the evil doer, the enemy against 
God, does good, as soon as he feels he is a sinner ! he does the 



140 tiie pious christian's 

work of salvation, even righteousness, as soon as he feels that he 
has no righteousness ! he is a good man, as soon as he feels he is 
a bad man ! but they say it is not man, no ! they do not trust in 
man to do good, it is man worked up into a regenerate man, and 
thisworked-upon-alteredmanisnot man ! Astonishing delusion ! 
for if it is not man, what is it ? It is an image for man, as God 
revealed of them, it is a fiction, an imaginary man, a lie in 
which they hope ! Thus they set up themselves, the unclean 
and evil man, to approach in a lying name unto God, in all his 
enmity and beastliness ! even in the lying name of regenerate 
man, the image they make to man ! he the swine prays and 
does good, and works salvation, and worships God as soon as 
he finds out and feels that he is a swine ! and there is no Media- 
tor, no Saviour, no High Priest, no Christ in whom we 
approach to God ; but this wicked one when he feels he is the 
wicked one approaches unto God ! Thus do they make the 
image to the beast. He is made out of the feelings and imagi- 
nations of man ! and they say without fear that their vile coun- 
terfeit worked up imaginations and feelings, are the work of the 
Spirit of God ! Thus the Spirit of Christ and of God is not right- 
eousness and blessing, but death and cursing, even feeling what 
hell deserving sinners we are ! And this they think is believing 
in God, even feeling their feelings of death and condemnation, 
which they wickedly call the " gracious work of God.'' 

They say they believe, in Christ, they who are under the law. 
and its righteous curse, who have something to do and who do 
it not, who are not righteous, who do not fulfil all the righteous- 
ness of the law ! Astonishing lying and wickedness! It is the 
utmost presumption and blasphemy for a man under the law. 
condemned by the law for sin, to say he believes in Christ, that 
is, he has Him, the Son dwelling in him, God with him, — yea ! 
God dwelling in a cursed man ! and then to say God is there, 
and God does not do righteousness ! righteousness is not there ! 
but he the beast has it to do, and it is not done, it is only per 
haps going to be done ! It is a vile abomination, a scheme of lies 
and wickedness, built up artfully and deceitfully on a perversion 
of truth and righteousness by the enemy of God, the adversary 
of all truth and righteousness ! They cannot believe, they who 
will do something themselves, who will not have God to bless 
them, doing all things for them, they are the haters of God ! 
Their faith and their religion is pride, insolence, presumption, 
and intoxication, idolatry, the worship of the beast and his 
image ! an exhibition and parade of horrible filthy feelings, a 
glorying in sin and shame, an odious exaltation of themselves, 
at contemplating and telling their sins to each other. For this 
image is, as the Lord revealed, a talking, speaking image. They 
give life to the image of the beast, and this regenerate man is 
full of life, and all his life and all his occupation and joy consists 
in talking of his sin, and in telling his experience ; how he has 
felt, how deeply and sensibly, and how he has prayed, and what 
sweet seasons he has had, what transports he has undergone, 



FAITH AND HOPE. 141 

and what a vile, dead, wicked, rebellious, hell-deserving, filthy 
sinner he feels himself to be ! This is his life, " glorying in his 
shame," it is a proud, deceitful, boasting, puffed up, talkative, 
filthy lying image ! As soon as they suffer, or pretend to suffer, 
the horror, death, and condemnation of being guilty, and a sin- 
ner, then they are regenerate men, they are transmuted into 
" good men," they have got a change of heart, as they speak, pe> 
verting the Scriptures. When they suffer the deadly wound, 
which the. fiery sword of a sure and avenging law sooner or 
later inflicts in terrible earnest upon all who do iniquity, (which 
all will suffer in their consciences in due time.) this beast does 
not ; like the first beast, set to work to heal his deadly wound, 
(the death in his conscience for his sins,) by penance and severe 
mortifications, and then when he has healed the wound on his 
conscience, become a flaming saint, doing wonders of piety, 
which make men gape with wonder and admiration after the- 
re verend holy beast,— but on the contrary, this beast hugs and 
nurses, and tries to enlarge and magnify his wound ; for to feei 
it deeply and sensibly is a gracious wort, it is having an experi- 
ence, and becoming a regenerate man, it is a sure title? to 
heaven. It is his joy and delight to fancy he suffers this death 
and feels this wound, and to tell how he feels it ! He watches 
his sore, and tells every body how very bad it is, how shocking- 
ly it stinks, and what a hell-deserving sinner he is! Thus as the 
prophet spake of them, they debase themselves to hell, and the 
deeper they can make and describe their debasement, the more 
eminently pious they are esteemed to be. This death, that is. 
to mimic and counterfeit this death, is all their hope and comfort, 
for it is a title clear to mansions in the skies ! If there is no 
doubt that they feel it deeply and sensibly, then there is no doubt 
that they are regenerate men, they are true believers, they are 
going to heaven ! Thus all that is necessary, in order to be a 
genuine believer, and to be sure of goinor to heaven, is to fee) 
deeply and sensibly that you are a sinner ! Thus formerly it used 
to be that the righteous were blessed, but they have altered it 
all, and now it is only those who are wicked who are going to 
heaven, that is, those who get religion, or an experience, who are 
and feel deeply and sensibly that they are wicked men, that is, 
sinners ! It is not in their doctrine, he who fulfils the righteous 
ness of the law, who is blessed, that is, going to heaven, but on 
the contrary, he who feels that he does not fulfil it, that he is a 
transgressor, a sinner, he is the only one going to heaven ! For 
they threaten and kill men by telling them that if they do not 
make an image to the beast, if they do not get an experience and 
feel conviction for sin, they must be killed, they cannot possibly 
be saved, they are sure to go to hell, for they are not regenerate 
men, they are not born again, they have not had a change, and 
a " gracious work " of the Spirit, they have not got religion ! 
Thus they kill men in their consciences Thus also they destroy 
men. For men, instead of seeking after righteousness, instead 1 
of fearing God and His law, and seeking to be delivered from 
iniquity and the curse which is overall them that do iniquity, are 



142 THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN'S 

driven to try to feel sin, and to feel what sinners they are, and to 
get a crood stock of sin and wickedness, with the suffering or feel- 
ing ofthe damnation, which accompanies sin and wickedness, 
that so they may have a title to heaven, and be sure they are re- 
generate men and believers ! 

How the Lord has accurately described the beast and his 
image, as the beast that was, and is not, and yet is ! 

Thus they make an image to the beast Thus by pretending 
to feel, by workiug up their imaginations, and thinking they feel 
that they are great sinners, they set up themselves, men, under 
the lying name of regenerate man, instead of Christ, and this 
regenerate man does good and carries them to heaven. And 
they say it is not man who does good, no, but it is the regene- 
rate man, and in this name they trust. It is the name of a man. 
This regenerate man which they make and call themselves, is 
altogether a lie, it is a man of their own making and invention, 
it is an image to man which they set up. It is a fiction, an 
imaginary man, even a lie, and the feelings they pretend to feel, 
God hath revealed, are also a lie ! They do not suffer, nor feel 
the death they seek, which they try hard to feel and to suffer ! 
It is not a real man, it is only an image made to man, because 
there is not, and there never was any such a man, as a man, 
even Adam the flesh, worked upon, and made, and metamor- 
phosed into another and a different man ! It is their own making, 
God hath never made any such a man ! There are only two 
men, the first man and the second man. The first man is Adam, 
the earthly natural man, who is evil, and under the law and the 
curse of the law for evil. The second man is Christ, the heavenly 
man, the Lord from heaven, with His branches, the sons of 
God in Him, who are righteous and blessed because of right- 
eousness in Him ! Thus the Scripture says, * The first man is of 
the earth earthy, the second man is the Lord from heaven. 1 ' 
There is no third man, no altered, transmuted, regenerate man 
which they make, it is not a reality, it is an image which they 
make, an imagination and a lie. 

They think if they feel their feelings, that is, make this 
image, then they are believers ! they are without understand- 
ing, a deceived heart hath turned them aside. They cannot 
perceive, nor understand, that if a man felt he had a loath- 
some disease, it would not make him a believer, nor anything 
else, other than what he was. Much less, will labouring by 
force and shamming to believe that he has a loathsome dis- 
ease, viz. : that he is a sinner, — make him a believer ! 

But now, when they say they feel this bad disorder, even sin, 
then as soon as they imagine they feel it they say they are 
now regenerate men, they have undergone a change, a 
gracious work ! Thus as soon as they feel they are bad men, 
that is sinners, then they are good men, new regenerate 
men, nice pious men, believers ! and going to heaven ! Thus 



FAITH AND HOPE. 14o 

they are turned upside down ! Such is their folly ! for to be 
and to feel to be a bad man, that is to be made a good man ! 
and to feel hell-deserving sinners and to have a title to hell, 
that is to be a believer and to have a title to heaven ! 

But such is their contradiction, that although they are now 
born again, and new men, and believers, and therefore right- 
eous men, (for they are going to heaven,) yet still these new. 
born again heavenly men, are very bad men, they are still 
sinners, regenerate sinners as they call themselves ! they feel 
deeply and sensibly what dreadful sinners they are ! It is 
exactly as the the Lord Jesus Christ revealed and described 
the beast. It was a bad man ! and is not a bad man, and yet 
is a bad man, that is a sinner ! It is " the beast that 
was, and is not, and yet is P Thus has the Lord most 
wonderfully described their image, their lies, follies and con- 
tradictions, ages before they were born. For their regenerate 
man is a folly, a lie, and a contradiction. It is a man who 
was a bad man, " the beast was," and he is changed, as they 
say, he is a pious converted man, so " he is not" the bad man 
he was, and yet this same regenerate, altered good man is 
still a bad man, a sinner, they feel it deeply and sensibly, and 
.so the beast yet is. It is unheard of contradiction and folly, 
a man that was a bad man and is not a bad man, and yet is 
a bad man — a sinner as they say ! little dreaming what a 
hateful cursed thing a sinner is, which if they knew, they 
would hasten with fear and trembling, with strong cries and 
earnest entreaties to Him who is able to deliver them from 
this evil, instead of glorying in feeling it, and making their 
feeling sin, a title to heaven. They have not understanding 
to perceive that then- doctrine is a lie and an abomination, 
that it is a subtle device of Satan to set up sinful man 
in another name above the Lord's Christ ! to work salvation, 
to do good, that is righteousness and salvation, instead of 
Christ, 

They have not understanding to perceive that the gracious 
work they talk of is their own vain foolish and evil work, 
the work of a seducing and evil spirit, by which they make 
a lie and an abomination, an image to man, an imaginary 
man ! that the work is a bad and a wicked work, for out of a 
sinner they make a man who is a sinner still, a hell-deserving 
regenerate sinner, even just what he was before, and cer- 
tainly going in spite of all his piety and doing good, where he 
says, pronouncing his own sentence, he deserves to go, unless 
peradventure God gives him repentance to the acknowledging 
of the truth. 



144: TRK PIOUS CHRISTIAN'S 

The deceiving reasoning end perversion cf the Trvth ly which Uuf 
make the Image to the Beast, turning the truth of Ood into a He. 

They take the words of truth and turn them into a lie and boldly 
say that the word signifies the lie they have invented. The Scripture 
shows us that God takes away the heart of stone and gives us a new 
heart, thus the heart is changed by putting it away and we receive 
another instead. They invent a lie and deny the truth ; they say that 
the evil heart, which is the old and corrupt man, is worked upon, there 
is no change, no taking away, but the same corrupt heart, the same evil 
man is turned into a man which they call a regenerate and born-again 
man. Thus man himself, the wicked one, by being worked upon 
becomes a righteous man, a child, yea, a son of God himself— there is 
therefore no Christ of God ! Working upon Adam turns him into t« 
good a regenerate man! Hereby they deny the whole law of God, a 
sure foundation of truth, to depart from which is the first and sure step 
to every kind of madness and folly ! They deny the law herein : for 
the only righteous man who goes to heaven, that is, who is blessed, is 
the man who fulfils the righteousness of the law, and they pretend 
that they become righteous men, men who go to heaven, not by ful- 
filling the righteousness of the law, but by having their hearts worked 
upon! and how worked upon? what is* the work? Not a work of 
righteousness, but a work by which they feel deeply and sensibly that 
they are unrighteous men, who do not fulfil the righteousness of the 
law, who are hell-deserving sinners ! and by this work upon the 
wicked man, he the desperately wicked heart, the wicked one, is 
turned into a regenerate man and is a believer, — yea, an habitation of 
God, and is going to heaven! It is the profoundest, deepest deceit, 
delusion and wickedness ! Among all its blasphemies, the first beast, 
the mother of harlots and abominations of the Earth, (the religious 
world) has not invented anything equal to this deception and delusion of 
the image of the beast, the pious evangelical Christian's regenerate man! 

They completely overthrow the law of God, for it is not the righteous 
who are blessed, but they who feel that they are wicked ! and if they 
feel this they are regenerate men, they have had a gracious work, they 
have had an experience, and they will go to heaven ! They also com- 
pletely overthrow the gospel ; for what need is there of Christ to be 
our righteousness, to do righteousness for us, even the will of God, 
when men are going to heaven not because they are righteous men, 
being made righteous in Christ Jesus, having him the s^on in them, 
fulfilling the righteousness of the law in them,— but they are going to 
heaven if they feel that they are sinners, if they feel it deeply and 
sensibly, for then they have had a gracious work, and then they are 
regenerate men, and then they are believers, and then they are going 
to heaven ! Thus they make the corrupt man into another man b) a 
work upon his hear!, ;;nd this lie which is no change whatever but a 
making, even making an image to the beast, they call a change of 
heart, in the very words of truth, and thus make and build up a lie 
from the very words of truth. They deny the true change, viz: that 
they who believe, entering into Christ, are one with him, new men in 
Him, being delivered by Mis death from the enmity, the mind of the 
flesh, the old man who is the flesh and sin ; that they put him off by 
death with Christ, (he is not worked upon and made into a good man, 
God forbid ;) he is sin, and they put on Christ, for He is righteousness, 
they enter into righteousness, they exchange hell for heaven, and curs- 
ing for blessing, and the heart of stone, uncleanness and sin, for th« 
heart and mind of Christ, having his heart and mind and Spirit, a 
mind which hath wisdom, which is in them, and is truth and holiness, 
a spirit which is soundness of mind and good understanding ! They 



FAITH AND HOPE. 145 

deny this great change, they deny the putting off the old man, the 
garments of filth, and putting on Christ Ihe garments of salvation, and 
say that their corrupt hearts, they corrupt men are worked upon, not 
put off, made good, not changed by receiving Christ instead. This they 
falsely call a change, for they call everything falsely ! They support 
themselves in this lie, in their making this regenerate man the image of 
man out of wicked man, by a perversion of the word " to change'" 
They make a man out of man and falsely say that is a change. This is 
not to change, it is not to put away the evil heart of unbelief and re- 
ceive Christ to be in us, a new heart and mind ! It is making the very 
same evil mind of the flesh into a mind which they call a regenerate 
man, instead of putting it off and receiving the mind of Christ, being 
new men with Him, putting off the evil heart — the corrupt man ! 
They make a man an imaginary new man, instead of entering by faith 
into Christ and becoming new men in Him ; not making Him, bin 
entering into Him who is from everlasting. Their making a man by 
working upon a man is no change ; to change our garments is not to 
make and transmute the old into new, it is to put away, to put off the 
old and put on the new ; to change a piece of money is not to trans- 
mute copper or brass into gold or silver, but to put away one piece 
and receive another instead. ?o to change the heart is not to trans- 
mute nor transubstantiate the same old evil heart into one of another 
kind, but it is to put off with Christ by death, the enmity, the man 
Avho is sin, and receive Christ in us a new heart and mind who is 
Righteousness. But they, instead of receiving Christ, the new man. 
the Lord from heaven, to be in them, make a man instead of 
Him, a false Christ and a false man, an image of the beast; it is a lie- 
it is no change, it is a manufacture, a making of their own — God hath 
made no such a man ; it is the very image of the beast ! 

Our change is from being children of Gcd in the flesh and under the 
law in sin and death, longing after righteousness, to being children of 
God in Christ Jesus, filled with righteousness and true holiness. 
There never was a moment of our lives that we were not the children 
of God, His inheritance and beloved children, for He ever beholdeth 
us in Him, therefore we are not consumed. But we are in bondage 
under the law, in captivity to sin and death, separated from Gcd by 
our sins, so long as we are one with the corrupt man the evil heart of 
unbelief; and until God is pleased to deliver us, we remain in bondage. 
We were in this bondage for 4C00 years waiting for Him; then we 
were delivered for a week of 700 years ; we have been in this bondage 
again for 42 month?, for the Bridegroom has been taken out of tin- 
way, the beast, the abomination has prevailed, and we have been in 
mourning and in desolation. It is a union with the flesh, the old man. 
a bondage to corruption. When we receive the Salvation of God> 
when His time is come to give us the Blessing, and an entrance into 
His righteousness, even into the Holy of Holies, into heaven, in Chris: 
Jesus and with Him our High Priest, then we are delivered from 
bondage, we are raised from death into life, from the Outer Taber- 
nacle into the Holy Place ! We are delivered from our first husband, 
the flesh, and the law, in and with and over and upon it, and are joined 
to the Lord in a new union. It is a change from cursing to Blessing, from 
the heart and mind of the fleshly man to whom we were in captivity, to 
captivity in Christ, having His heart and mind. As a woman whose first 
husband is dead and she is married to another, becomes another person 
with the other husband, and it is a change from a cruel husband to a 
good one, so it is with Zion, the people, the church of Christ, whom God 
hath created for His glory. We are separated and divorced by the death, 
of Christ from the flesh, the heart of enmity and sin, and are married un- 

13 



146 THE pious christian's 

to Him who is raised from the dead. It is a change indeed, it is not turn" 
in? the wretched twain into a happy pair by working upon them, which 
is their doctrine of regeneration, which is no change. When the bride 
of Christ being in mourning and death hears the voice of the Bride- 
groom, she rejoices and cleaA T es no longer to the first husband, but 
hearing that he is put to death and has no more right nor claim over 
her, she will forsake the dead man and the death with which she was 
joined in one with him, and believing, will be joined to the Lord, 
hearing his voice with gladness. She will abhor as God abhors the 
Pious Christian doctrine of regeneration, even of turning man into 
the man who was and is not and yet is a man ! and saying that this lie 
is the change which the Truth teaches, thus turning the truth of God 
into a lie. The old man is the old union the flesh, a bad man under 
the law, a man not without sin, even Adam; fhe new man is a new 
union, one man, the spirit, a righteous man without sin, even Christ! 
it is a true change of heart ; the evil heart, the enmity by the law, is 
destroyed by death with Christ, and being joined by faith with Him we 
have His heart mind and spirit, and are blessed in Him ! 
The true doctrine of being born again is the very reverse of the Evan- 
gelical Christian's doctrine of Regeneration. 

They are as the Lord hath revealed of them, turned upside down in 
all things, and all that they teach and believe is the very reverse and 
opposite of the truth of God. 'lhey teach that when anyone feels 
deeply and sensibly that he is a sinner, that is, (if the feeling is not a 
lie,) when he really is a sinner, then he is born again, he has had a 
" gracious work," it' is the new birth ! The truth of Cod is directly the 
reverse of their lie. For when any one is turned away from his iniqui- 
ties, and ceaseth to do evil, and learns to do well, and departeth no 
more from Cod, by sinning against His law, then and then only he is 
born again, then heentereth into life, even righteousness! 

They think that to be born again is then first to become children of 
Cod. Theyknow and understand not that to be changed, to be born 
again, is not to be made children of Cod, but it is when the children 
who were already children of God * formed from the womb," yea more, 
** created in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world," are raised 
from the death of sin under the law, from not fulfilling the righteous- 
ness of the law, (which is death.) into righteousness and life in Christ by 
His resurrection from the dead They know not that this word, " ye 
must be bom again," was spoken by the Lord to one who was a child of 
God waiting for the blessing promised, though yet in bondage under 
the law; and it was spoken by the Lord himself, who was not yet 
risen from the dead, nor yet himself born again, not yet begotten from 
the dead ; for He was still in sorrow and death, in the flesh as we are, 
under the law and the curse as we are, (He for our Bakes) being made 
sin for us who knew no sin. He was thus, till he had put to death the 
enmity, the old man, the mind of the flesh on the tree, and was begot- 
ten again from the dead, and rose again into His glory which He had 
with Cod from everlasting. So also His people are children of God, 
created in Him before the world was, they are children of God, His 
creation from the womb, they are in the flesh under the law as He 
was, and they are in this death as He was, till receiving Him whom 
God hath sent, they receive the blessing, even Him the everlasting 
righteousness to be in them ; then entering by faith into Him, they 
are raised from the dead together with Him, begotten from the dead, 
born from above. Then being in Him. they are no longer in the flesh 
as He was, they are in the Spirit as He is ; for the Holy Ghost saith, 
" as He is, so arc toe in this world," they are no longer in death under 
the law as He was, but they are raised from the dead as He is ! 



FAITH AND HOPE. 147 

Thus the man who is born again, is the man who is one with Christ 
who enters into righteousness, receiving the blessing, even righteous- 
ness, which before when he was the man under the law, he was longing 
after from God, waiting for it, as all the saints of old waited for Him, 
and in death, and sorrow, and fear, because he had it not ; yet know- 
ing the faithfulness of God, that in His own due time we shall receive 
this righteousness everlasting, because He never forsaketh them that 
trust in Him, and they that seek His righteousness shall receive it, the 
prisoner that crieth unto Him shall be delivered ! The man under the 
law, who says he will do righteousness himself, who will not receive it 
a gift from God, he doing nothing, is the enemy, even man the flesh ; 
he hath not righteousness, he doeth it not, and he refuses to receive 
God to do it for him ! This enmity which is the evil heart of the flesh, 
and which is in all who are men in the flesh, is destroyed and put to 
death for us by Christ in His death. We are circumcised with Him, 
and put off with Him by His death, the enmity, the evil flesh. It was 
our mind, our enmity, our very nature of malice and wickedness, 
which He destroyed'by His death, even that nature, that enemy, the 
fleshly man, who says he will not receive God to be God, but he 
himself will do, he will make himself without sin and go to heaven I 
He destroyed the enmity, this evil heart by His death ; we die with 
Him and are raised from the dead with Him, and entering into Him, 
are in Him, having his mind ; we are made one spirit with Him in His 
life and glory, as He was made one flesh with us in our death, sin, and 
misery. It is a real change ; we had under the law the mind of man, 
a mind of sin, of hatred against God, a pious Christian mind of doing 
wonders of piety, and we put it off, and being joined with Him, we 
have the mind of Christ. This is a change of heart and mind indeed, 
which they deny, and say the enmity, the evil man, is worked upon, 
and turned into a'good regenerate man. Thus they deny the truth, and 
then boldly and confidently set up their lie and counterfeit, in the very 
words of the truth, saying that their transmutation of themselves of 
the evil man into another different man, is the change of heart, the 
putting away the heart of stone, which Gcd works for us by His Christ, 
which Christ finished for us when He died upon the cross ! Thus they 
make a horrible abomination, a frightful lie, turning iniquity, even 
man into Christ, into a righteous man, into a doer of righteousness, a 
habitation of God, instead of His Christ, and then applying the words 
of truth to their abomination, they say boldly, this is the change God 
effects for His people ! this is the salvation of God ! 

Entering into Christ by faith, we are no longer in the flesh, one evil 
man with it, as Christ when raised from the dead by the glory of the 
Father, was no longer a man of sorrows under the law and the curse, 
such as He was before he rose from the dead, such as we are, till we 
enter into him. When by faith the spirit is joined with Christ, we arc 
begotten from the dead, we are born of God We were members of 
Christ before, but dead branches, dry bones burnt up by the law, sepa- 
rated from God by our sins, but now we are alive in 'Him, for He is 
the life in us, filling us with Himself, with righteousness, and we are 
in Him, righteous in Him ! Then we depart from iniquity, we live, we 
do righteousness, yet not we, but Christ who dwellelh in us. We were 
in bondage to the man of the earth, who held us in captivity, but 
believing, entering into Christ, we are led captive by Him; thus He 
leads captivity captive. The man we were before exists no more, 
when the spirit is delivered from captivity to the flesh. The union of 
the twain existing no longer by the death of one of the twain, the man 
who was that twain, the man of sin, exists no longer. The first union, 
the first man which was Adam, is no more, it is a new union, a new 



148 

man which is Christ. When joined with wickednesss. we were wicked, 
unhappy men, with a terrible law over us ; when joined with right- 
eousness, and led captive by Him, we are righteous and blessed men 
in Him. All this God hath revealed without a single word, by the 
figure of circumcision, which is a true and painful figure of the more 
painful reality. For dying to ourselves, to sin, putting off our own 
lieshly minds is bitter as death ; It is death. We never could, nor 
would do it, we love ourselves too much ; but He hath gotten the 
victory for us, and He doeth for us that which is impossible to man. 
It is circumcision of the heart. We put off sin with Him, the old 
heart and mind, and are raised from the dead together with Him by the 
glory of the Father, receiving His heart and mind. This is entering 
into life, and being born again. It is passing from the night into the day, 
from under the law and sin, into the brightness of the light of the 
glory of God in Christ Jesus. We receive Him, the word to enter into 
us, we enter into Him. He is the life and righteousness in us. Thus, 
to believe and enter into Him, is to be born of God, for the Scripture 
saith, " He that believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is bom of Gorf," for 
it is by the glory of the Father that we are thus begotten from the dead 
with Christ. 

So when the proud, rank flesh, the mind of enmity, of doing wonders 
of piety, is subdued, conquered, and slain for us by Christ, and believ- 
ing, we put it off with Him in His death, then entering into Him, we 
are begotten from the dead, we are born again. We receive Him to 
do all for us. (Who will talk of his doing, when God is present doing 
all?) Thus being born from above by the glory of the Father, and 
planted trees of righteousness in Him, the righteous branch, we are 
righteous in Him, we walk in Him in the spirit, He fulfils the right- 
eousness of the law in us, we walk not after the flesh, having to do 
and not doing. Thus the truth is, that when we being wicked men in 
Adam the flesh, (wicked by the law, because we fulfil not all its right- 
eousness,) are turned away from the wickedness which we committed 
in the flesh, and receiving Christ to do all righteousness in us, we do 
that which is lawful and right, (we fulfil the righteousness of the law,) 
— then we are born again, we receive salvation, our souls which before 
were in death, now are saved alive ! The evangelical pious Christians, 
the Earth of this day, teach the very reverse, viz. : that when we wicked 
men, feel deeply and sensibly that we are wicked men, and hell-de- 
serving sinners, that is, when we are wicked and know it, then we are 
born again ! And it is not entering into Christ and receiving Him r 
even His mind, but it is remaining men, and having the old heart of 
unbelief, worked upon, — to feel ! Thus, with the pride and sin of 
Sodom they turn the truth of God into a lie ; the truth is simply when 
we are righteous and do righteousness we are born again ; and they 
say that when we are wicked and feel it, then we are born again ! — 
To do righteousness, to depart from all iniquity by Christ dwelling in 
us, to have the Son of God in us the sons of God, doing righteousness 
so that we depart no more from God, dying no more under the fierce 
wrath of the law — that is to enter into life, to be begotten from the 
dead ! to be born from above by the Spirit of His Son which God 
sendeth into our hearts because we are sons ! But to remain men in 
Adam, worked upon, servants of sin, having to do righteousness and 
not doing it, feeling deeply and sensibly that we do not do it — that is 
being cursed, that is death, and sin the sting of death ! It is not death 
in fact till we know and suffer it, and feel it, then we die ! And they 
teach that when they suffer it, and feel it, then they live, that is their 
life, that is their being born again! Thus they are turned upside 
down! Their regeneration and being born again is the very 



FAITH AND HOPE. 149 

reverse of the truth, for it is to die, to enter into death, to feel the 
curse the bitterness of death deeply and sensibly ! And they say they 
are alive when they thus are dead, and if they only feel that they are 
dead they are born again, they are made into another sort of man who 
is a cursed man, for he is still a sinner, he has something to do, (and 
that is every thing to do,) and he does it not, and the curse is upon him, 
burning at his heart, and he feels it deeply and sensibly! This he says 
is to be born again, to be made a regenerate man ; thus they make an 
image to the beast. 

The worship of the Beast and his Image is not confined to those only 
who talk of having become regenerate men. 

Although the pious and evangelical Christians give a fuller develop- 
ment and stronger expression to the doctrine of the Image of the 
beast, and teach and inculcate the doctrine more zealously, calling it 
the "work of the Spirit" " the new birth ," "regeneration" "being 
born again ," "experiencing a change" "getting religion" "having a 
change of heart." "having an experience," and teach that men should 
make this image, and that if not, if they do not feel a change they 
cannot be saved, yet they who use these* and such like expressions, 
exhibiting more evangelical zeal than others, are not the only wor- 
shippers of the beast and his image. It is a common thing for men 
to make an image to the beast without putting the doctrine into any 
regular form of words, and making a religious virtue and theory 
of it. When a man thinks he is a pious or converted man. a different 
man to what he was before, he has set up an image to the beast. He 
says, I was an unconverted man, but now I am a reformed altered 
man, and yet he acknowledges he is a man and a sinner. That is, he 
was a bad man, he is not a bad man, and yet is a bad man, it is the 
beast that was, and is not, and yet is. So it is with any pretended 
change of man, it is the folly of imagining that a man who is a sinner, 
is not a sinner because of some imaginary change or apparent refor- 
mation of conduct, while still he is a man and a sinner by the law, the 
same as he was before. Whatever a man may do, yet being under 
a law to do no evil, he is a transgressor, that is a sinner, not fulfilling that 
law in all things continually. As to the degree of his sin, God is the 
Judge of that, and He will judge men according to their deeds, but 
every man, whatever he may be or whatever he may do, who is under 
a law which admits of no sin, is a sinner in some degree, and under 
the curse of thai law in some degree, that is according to his deeds. 
He is yet a sinner, and therefore if he says he is changed, that he 
is a different man from what he was before, he says he was and is 
not and yet is, — a sinner, a man that sins, a beast before God. No 
man under the law can dwell with God, because he is not without 
sin ; he may change in outward show, in degree and amount of evil 
deeds, that is of sinning, but still he changes not, he is a sinner, for 
the law over him changes not, it admits of no sin. For such a man, a 
sinner, to talk of his being changed while he still is a sinner, is the beast 
who says he was a sinner and he is changed, he is a good man, and so 
he is not a sinner, and yet he is still what he was before, viz : a man 
and a sinner ! They who being under this righteous law of perfect 
righteousness, and therefore being sinners, long after righteousness to 
receive it from God are blessed, for God will fill them with righteous- 
ness by His Christ. But they who being also sinners under the law 
seek not after Christ, even righteousness, but imagine that they will 
do something, they will do good, that is, become without sin so as to 
dwell with God while they are under the law, deceive themselves and 
13* 



150 THE PIOUS CHRISTIANS 

trust not in God ; for being under this law, whatever they do they are 
transgressors, and no one can dwell with God without perfect righteous- 
nass, that is without Christ. Fie is life, received by faith to be and to 
fulfil all the righteousness of the law in us ; we live by faith, we are 
dead without this righteousness of God. Much as we may change 
under this law from one degree of sin to a lesser or greater degree, 
we are sinners while under it, and shall be dealt with according to our 
conduct and behaviour, there is no change, we are sinners, though there 
may be a difference in sinning. But when we believe and receive 
Christ to do all righteousness for us, and fulfil for us all the righteous- 
ness of the law, then there is a change indeed, a change from being 
men under the law, in the flesh, having to do and its not being done, 
to men not under the law, that is not in the flesh, not having to do, but 
men in Christ, jusc men in Him, righteous before God. It is the 
change of casting off the filthy garments of our own fleshly righteousness, 
and putting on in exchange the righteousness of God, the garments of 
salvation and blessing. It is a change of heart mind and spirit, for 
under the law we had a heart and mind to rebel and do evil which 
is death, but in Christ, being one spirit with Him, we have the mind of 
Christ. The pious Christians, perverting the Scriptures, talk also of a 
change of heart, but they have turned the truth of God into a lie, it 
is a lie in their lips, for they signify a lie, even turning the wicked man 
into a good man, who is still a sinner, dead and cursed and not changed 
at all. The man they make, the pious man who pretends to be right- 
eous is a deceiver, a bad man still, it is their image to the beast, a man 
that was a sinner and is altered to a feeling regenerate man, and as 
they imagine is not what he was, and yet is just what he was before, — 
a sinner, and as they say a regenerate sinner, which is the worst pos- 
sible kind of sinner f for it is a deceived man, who thinks that he, a sin- 
ner by the law, not having the righteousness of the law, — not longing 
after Christ to do that righteousness for him, not willing to receive Ilim 
to do it— (that is an enemy of righteousne?*) is going to heaven in spite 
of the law, without its righteousness, and because he feels that he is 
destitute of it ! Being under the law, having it to do, he cannot go to 
heaven, he cannot be blessed, the law first must be a lie and God a 
liar, before such a person can go to heaven. 

The Regeneration of the Second Beast is the Transubstantiation of the 
First Beast. 
This their doctrine of the regenerate man, the image of the beast, is 
the same in ics nature and character with the doctrine of transubstan- 
tiation ^f the first beast, only it is a greater abomination. They have 
greatly triumphed over the first beast and extolled themselves for their 
greater purity, and have committed greater abominations than their 
Mother, the mother of harlots and abominations of the Earth, (the 
religious world.) They say they are turned substantially, they, wicked 
men, are transubstantiated spiritually into pious good men, regenerate 
men, who do good and go to heaven! They deny Christ and set up 
themselves instead of Ilim, men transubstantiated and made into 
doers of righteousness, made into children of G-od, into Christs, and 
saviours, even into men who do righteousness and thereby go to heaven. 
They turn the same corrupt men into good men, that is they transub- 
stantiate themselves; for this image of the beast is nothing but them- 
selves,— (and they know it, and mean it in their hearts)— it is their own 
evil selves, made by a spiritual transubstantiation into imaginary, 
good, pious, converted, sham-new, sham-holy men, which pretended 
new good man is the image to the beast. Their image, (they them- 
selves) is instead of Christ ; it is their life to do righteousness for them, 
they receive not Christ to be and to do righteousness. 



FAITH AXD HOPE. 151 



They turn the truth into a lie when they call this transubstantiation 
of themselves into Christs, by the name of a change ; there is no change 
whatever, it is the transubstantiation of the first beast, in a viler, 
more deceiving, and more deceitful form. In both cases, with both 
beasts, by a peculiar sort of incantation and working, both of them 
pretend with audacious impudence and blasphemy, that their doings 
and incantations are the working of God, and that God makes a crea- 
ture into Himself, even into Christ by a gracious work! and being 
confident in themselves that their work is the work of God, they say, be- 
cause, (as they verily believe,) God has made the creature to be himself, 
therefore the 'creature thus made is entitled to great veneration ; there- 
fore it appears most impious to them to laugh at their doctrine, and at 
the creature thus made by their magic and lies. The first beast say3, 
God turns harmless bread and wine into Christ. The second beast 
says, that God turns man himself, the filthy and unclean one, into a 
Christ, even a doer of good, a saviour, a child, a son of God. They 
both say it is the work of God, a gracious work of course. The first 
beast mutters some words over the bread and wine, and then says it is 
changed ! the pious Christians pretend to feel that they are great sin- 
ners and then they say they are changed ! The first says that the bread 
and wine is changed into the body and blood of Christ, the second 
beast says, that the wicked man himself is changed into a Christ, a 
false Christ, a pretended doer of good and of righteousness, a sham-new 
man. for it is an image of the beast, a false man and a false Christ, a 
double image at the same time. The process by which they operate the 
pretended change is similar: the one mumbles words, the other mum- 
bles feelings, and by this operation, or incantation, what they call a 
change is effected ; the bread and wine becomes turned into body, and 
blood, and the wicked man becomes turned into a regenerate man. 

Thus Adam is transubstantiated and made another man, a regenerate 
man ! Thus they are saved, for they are sure to be saved if they are 
regenerate men! and this transubstantiation is instead of faith; they 
deny the Faith! There is no passing from death into life, from con- 
demnation under the law in the flesh, to justification in Christ in the 
Spirit! from Adam into Christ; but Adam himself is worked upon, 
and made into a false Christ, a regenerate man, an image of the beast. 
And they falsely call this transubstantiation* a change of heart, 
whereas they keep to their old hearts, their old enmity against the 
righteousness of God, they put it not off, they receive not Christ, anew 
heart and good spirit to be in them doing righteousness! they laugh at 
that, the true change of heart which God works when He transplants 
us, trees of righteousness, into His Christ, and raises us up from death 
under the law. into life with Kim. by His glory. They make Adam 
into a reformed improved Adam, turning the evil mind into a good 
mind, instead of dying with Christ and being raised from the dead with 
Him, putting away the old mind the old man. It is the fiction of the 
first beast, by which it pretends to do bodily the very same thing which 
they pretend to do spiritually. It is spiritual Transubstantiation. Both 
transmute the creature of God into another and better creature; the 
first beast says, that a harmless creature, bread from the baker and 
wine from the wine-grower is made into the body and blood of Christ ; 
and they say that the violent heart and spirit" of man is absolutely 
made into the mind and spirit of Christ ! They both call it a change ; 
it is no change, no putting away, it is making and creating, it 
is transub substantiation, making one same creature to be another 
creature, one same thing to be another thing; and the pretend- 
ed change in both cases is a lie, both things remain the same 
things, both substances remain the same ; the bread and wine is 



1 52 THE pious christian's 



bread and wine still, and the wicked man with his heart of enmrty 
.tgainst the righteousness of God, is still the same wicked man, the 
same enmity! 

Thus in both instances, the creatures of God are worked upon, (and 
of course, as they say, graciously,) and in both instances, they say 
they are changed "into" very sons of God, by being thus operated and 
worked upon! the first beast saying the bread and wine is tinned into 
the Son of God, and the second beast saying, that they, filthy men and 
women, are turned into sons and children of God ! In both cases it is 
calling things falsely, when such working and such a work operated 
upon any creature, whereby the same creature is ma.de into another 
creature, is called a change. It is not a change, it is a making. When 
Christ made wine out of water it was not a change. He did not take 
away bad water and till the vessels with good water instead, changing 
the water, (as he truly changes the hearts of them that believe, by 
taking away by His death, the evil mind of sin. and filling them with His 
own mind and heart.) He did not change the water, but He made and 
created by the Almighty word, by which word of God, the heavens 
were made and all the host of them ! The water was not changed, it 
was made into another substance, that is, transubstantiated ; the sub- 
stance and body of the water was made to become in substance and 
body, the wine which it was not before. So they say they become 
substantially in spirit, a creature which they were not before, they 
are substantially transmuted, it is an absolute transubstantiation, and 
they who were wicked men are worked and operated upon, and they are 
then transubstantiated into good, regenerate, new men, doers of good, 
yea sans of God! this making of a creature, out of a creature, by an 
operation upon the creature, this transubstantiation of the same crea- 
ture into another creature, they falsely call a change! But the folly of 
their transubstantiation is manifest herein, for they make a righteous 
person, one who is going to heaven, to be, and to dwell with God, not 
by making him righteous by his fulfilling the righteousness of the 
law, but by working him up into another man, and a man who 
feels that he does not fulfil the righteousness of the law ! so that the 
law of God signifies nothing, but worked-upon transubstantiated man 
is going to heaven ! 

Moreover, this making of this regenerate man, the image of man 
which they make, is not by the Word, as the wine was made by Christ ; 
for Christ did not call upon the water to help to make itself into wine, 
no ! He spake and it was done ! But they operate their transubstantia- 
tion of themselves, whereby they are turned into other men. not by the 
Word of God, no! but their wicked hearts which are transubstantia- 
ted and tinned into good ones, are called upon to aid and help in the 
operation. They pretend God works upon their hearts, and then 
they consent if they will, to receive the work, and if they are piously 
disposed, they allow the work to go on, and then they feel deeply and 
.sensibly, aud then the transubstantiation, the manufacture of the image 
of the beast, takes place, and they are turned into regenerate men, 
sham new men, false Christs, who go to church on Sundays very regu- 
larly and demurely, look awfully pious, reprove drunkenness and 
whoredom in others, with hearts full of both themselves, and perhaps 
go to heaven when they die, provided they keep on very strictly in all 
these delusions ; but if not, the manufacture of a new man was all 
lahour thrown away, and the sham-new man will go to hell ! 

Thus, though they pretend to say it is God's work to make the image 
of the beast, the sham-new man, yet the fact is, that the old beast 
itself makes the new regenerate beast the image of itself out of itself. 
The old creature itself, helps to make itself into another creature by 



FAITH AND HOPE. 153 

its feelings being operated upon, and feeling nicely and piously, deeply 
and sensibly ! It is an abomination of delusion, wickedness, blas- 
phemy and folly ! 

Thus they say God works upon the old creature, then he has feel- 
ings, and then he is made into another, a regenerate creature, a doer 
of righteousness, a son of God, a goer to heaven ! Thus they make 
the old creature to make itself into a new creature, they will not 
even alloAV God to make the sham new creature, but He works a work 
upon the old creature (and it is a gracious work, that is the honour to 
Him,) then straightway it makes a new creature out of itself by virtue 
of the feelings which it got by the gracious work upon it ! so 
that in fact the old creature becomes a god and then makes a new 
creature out of itself, a son of God, and then lays down its godship, 
and leaves the new creature it has made to be the god in its place, the 
doer of good, the saviour that goes to heaven ! and God has remotely 
the honour of all these lies and blasphemies, because it is His u gra- 
cious work " to work up the heart of the old creature, whereby the 
old beast having feelings, makes the new good beast out of himself, 
and the new creature, thus made with all this trouble and expense of 
folly, is just as bad off as the old beast was before, for he is a new 
sinner ! and it is very doubtful whether he will be saved, he has to be 
very and awfully pious, if not he will certainly be damned ! he is just 
therefore what he was before ! 

All this folly, wickedness and confusion of Sodom and Egypt is, they 
say the " gracious work " of God upon their hearts ! All this they 
prefer to the truth and simplicity of Christ, that He by His death 
destroys for his people, the enmity by which they are evil men, and 
under the law, (which law is over all evil men,) and gives them his 
own heart and spirit in which they are one with Him, righteous in 
Him, saved and no longer men under the law! Thus he makes a real 
change, (it is not a turning of wickedness into righteousness) — but His 
people who had a mind opposed to God are delivered from it by His 
death, and have the mind of Christ, a mind subject and obedient to 
God! They had the evil heart of stone, even of man, and 
they have the heart and spirit of Christ ! They are by faith one heart 
with Him in whom God dwells, and are no longer one heart with him 
in whom dwelleth no good thing. It is a true change ; but they will 
make and transubstantiate themselves into other men, into false 
Christs without any change or putting away at all, by the mummery of 
their feelings and sensations. They will turn the old enemy into a 
Christ by a pretended working upon him, and so make Adam into a 
Christ, rather than submit to God and receive Him who is from ever- 
lasting, who is the I AM who appeared to Moses in the bush, the 
Angel by whom God saved His people, who is not made by any work 
upon man's evil heart. He is from everlasting, and they that beiieve 
are His members, His own body, the Church which He loved and gave 
Himself for it ! They enter into Him, not making another Him in- 
stead of Him out of themselves, by working upon and transubstan- 
tiating themselves, making themselves into false Christs, sham-new 
men, regenerate men, an image of the beast. They deny the true 
change, even death with Christ and life with Him, that in Adam we 
die putting Him off, (not re-making him) and in Christ we are made 
alive. It is a change of heart indeed ; for to insist upon doing, upon 
being under the law, not to receive God to do all righteousness for us, 
to hate His righteousness, His doing, to be determined to do, and to 
have something to do, — that is the heart, the mind, the enmity of 
man ! But to receive God to be our God, to have Him to be with us, 
doing all things for us, we doing nothing, to receive His love, His gift, 



154 THE pious christian's 

even His Christ, to fill us, that is the mind and heart of Christ, the 
heart of a Son, of an obedient child. 

There is no need of making a Christ to do righteousness, a sham- 
new regenerate man, an image of the beast, for Christ is from ever- 
lasting ; we enter by faith into Him, God giveth us this faith and 
plants us trees of righteousness in Him, engrafting us in Him. We are 
new men in Him, the second man, the Lord from heaven ; their third 
man, their regenerate man, is a lie, an image to man, it is their own 
evil selves in another name. This image of the beast, this name of a 
man, is a subtle device of the devil whereby to deny the righteous- 
ness of God and set up man in another name, and in disguise to be- 
com ! righteousness himself, (that is to do it) instead of Christ. It is 
th« utmost deceit of hatred and malice against the righteousness of 
God. The deceit of getting righteousness by doing is not so great a 
a lie as this of getting righteousness by feelings ; yet doings are 
better than feelings, and so the worse the deceit, and the greater the 
lie, the more men are deceived ! If doings will not make a man right- 
eous before God, how much less will feelings ! If doings will not heal 
the deadly wound, and make the beast live, (except in deception and 
lies,) how much less will feelings turn the beast into a dear, good,, 
nice, pious, regenerate man, alive and going to heaven! There 
is no righteousness but in and by Christ Jesus! there is no doing 
good but by having Him in us, He doing it all in us and for us, that is 
by faith ! He, the righteousness of God is in, unto, and upon, all them 
that believe, and they are in Him, righteous in Him. If righteousness 
which is life come by all the doings of the law, Christ is dead in vain, 
much more, His death is in vain if righteousness and a righteous man 
comes by feeling deeply and sensibly ! Doing all the deeds of the 
law will not turn man into a righteous man, much less will feeling 
deep feelings, turn him into a good man who goes to heaven ; and there- 
fore, when they say they are turned into good men, going to heaven, 
they speak a lie, they make an Image to the beast. Their doctrine 
is a strong delusion, a lie, and an abomination of the devil! 

God hath made no ma??, by any work upon him, to be instead of Christ. 

They fight against the very truth of God, that it is God who doeth all 
righteousness for us by His Christ, that we do it not, He doeth it, we 
have it not to do, having Him to do it. Against this very truth they 
fight bitterly, and then say they believe this very truth, that God doeth 
all ! They enable themselves to do this by their doctrine of the Image 
of the Beast, saying they are transubstantiated into doers of good them- 
selves, and so they do it; but as it is the gracious work of God to 
transubstantiate them into regenerate men and doers of good, there- 
fore indirectly it is God who has done all, it is all His gracious work ! 
There never was a more artful way invented of telling a lie, even of 
saying God has done all, and they believe it is all His grace, while it is 
they themselves who do all, and have all to do, and there is no grace 
at all ! Therefore, they know the doctrine they oppose and deny is the 
truth, or else they would not invent this way of pretending to believe 
it, and of saying in words that they believe it, while they hate, resist, 
and deny it ! They sin wilfully ! Thus by this lie God is not the God 
who really does all, while they say He does all, but He only makes 
them to be the real doers of all ! Never was there such deceit and 
lying ! They do all, and when they do all, it is God who does all, it is 
all His gracious work ! It is the ail-deceivableness of unrighteousness ! 
It is an awful delusion, and they that are lukewarm in this matter, and 
care not for the truth, Christ will spew them out of His mouth, but they 



FAITH AND HOPE. 155 

that have His mind will abhor these delusions and lies ! They reject 
Christ to do truth and righteousness, to fulfil the righteousness of the 
law, but they say they have Him to work them up, and influence them. 
to do what they 'call piety ! Thus the evil man, the enemy of God, does 
good for heaven, he does it all and has it all to do ; he is, in fact, the 
god and saviour, and then he says it is all the work of God, for he pre- 
tends it is God who has made him such a wonderful god and saviour ! 
Then they flatter God with ecstacies of piety aud drunken enthusiasm, 
saying, u Oh, -what a gracious work to icorh upon us, and make us to be 
regenerate men, and then to influence us to become such pious good 
people .'" They think it is honouring God to say that He has made the 
god they honour, even themselves, wiio do and save by their doing, 
Thus all who have denied God, and set up something instead of God, 
have always pretended that the creature they set up above and instead 
of God, came from God, and so in this roundabout way it was ail the 
work of Cod ! In the same way they set up themselves to do right- 
eousness instead of Christ, that is to save, and it is all the work of 
God of course, for He has set them up to be the gods and saviours, in- 
stead of Himself, by working upon them ! and then they have done the 
works, such wonderful works, that though it is only singing and groan- 
ing, feeling and going to church on Sundays, yet they are going to 
heaven for it all ! 

No ! their doctrine is most evil and deceitful, the strong delusion of 
the devil ! God hath made no god to do His wonderful works ! He 
hath not delegated His glory and the most wonderful work of His Sal- 
vation to any one, much less to a corrupt man, making the benst into 
a god, to do' and to save. He dwelleth in His Christ from everlasting, 
One with Him ! He hath exalted Him, His Holy One, f who was for a 
season made a little lower than the angels, from the lowly situation 
in which He placed Himself to redeem us.) to be a Prince and a Sa- 
viour ! By Him. His Word, He created all things that are created ! By 
Him He doeth all His glorious works, by Him He saves and blesses His 
people ! not by man. 

How by their false and lying doctrine of regeneration, they overthrow 
and slay all the law of God, and refuse to receive instruction and 

reproof. 

Fy this, their doctrine of regeneration, representing that a good 
and righteous man, a regenerate man, as they speak, a man who 
goes to heaven and dwells with God, is begotten out of sinful 
man, by a work upon his evil heart, they not only cast down Christ 
from His excellency, setting up sinful man, transubstantiated into a 
good man, to be and to do the work of Christ, even righteousness, 
which is salvation, but they also entirely overthrow and trample under 
foot the law of God, casting from them all reproof, correction and in- 
struction. Whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under 
the law, who have it to do themselves, and who are sinners by not 
fulfilling its righteousness. (Whether they are children of God or not, 
it matters not, the law is over all, whosoever they are that do iniquity, 
there is no difference in the persons. There is a'difference, and often- 
times a great difference in their actions, and the law deals with them 
righteously, according to their actions, for they receive greater or less 
damnation, as they do evil, more or less.) But while the Pious Chris- 
tians, the worshippers of the beast and his image, are under the Jaw, 
which no man can put away, wmile they have not Christ to fulfil its 
righteousness, but have set up a sham-new man, their altered, good 
regenerate selves to do it instead of Christ, and thus have all its some- 
thing to do, all their duty to do, even to do no evil, according to the 



156 THE PIOUS CHRISTIANS 

commandment of God, yet they cast it all from them confidently and 
without fear ! By this lying doctrine of the regenerate man, the image 
of the beast, those very persons who have something and every thing 
to do, cast aside all the law of God, even all they have to do, and say 
they have it not to do ! For when they hear or read the law, the sure 
and terrible curse which is upon them that transgress the law, doing- 
evil, and not continuing in all that is written to do it, even to do its 
righteousness, and all the righteous actions towards all men which 
God commands — when they hear or read all this, they boldly throw it, 
all off from themselves and say, " Oh* yes, that is all very true, but that 
is all addressed to unregencratc men, it is not spoken of regenerate men" 
Thus by this tremendous delusion their hearts are hardened and their 
consciences seared as with a red-hot iron. Thus there is no law of 
God to them, to do all its righteousness ; no, indeed, that is only fur 
unregenerate men; and there is no Christ and Saviour to save and 
bless, by doing righteousness for them, no, indeed, they are regene- 
rate men, they do good themselves, they have had a gracious work 
upon their hearts, they are going to heaven ! Thus have they fallen 
into a deep pit, out of which there is no hope nor possibility of extri- 
cation, but they will sink deeper and deeper in their own delusions, 
unless God give them, (it is a gift, a great gift,; repentance unto the 
acknowledgment of the truth. Thus by this vile image, this imagi- 
nary man, which they persuade themselves they arc, they cast away 
with awful pride and" self-sufficiency, all the counsel, reproof, correc- 
tion and teaching of the law of God, which they are blessed who arc 
taught and chastened thereby, hearkening to the reproof of God, for it 
is God who teacheth and chastencth His people, out of the law, that 
He may give them rest, and bring them to Christ. But they, regene- 
rate men, have nothing to do with righteousness, with the law, with 
reproof, with correction, with chastisement, it is not for them, " re- 
generate men," they persuade themselves they have nothing to hear 
and nothing to fear, and they hear nothing and fear nothing; they 
feel, instead, and they feel so sweetly ! 

Such is the folly and contradiction of those who forsake God, who 
listen to seducing religious spirits, and follow their own wisdom and 
ways, who have arrived to such pride, that their own ways and 
thoughts appeal* to them wonderfully wise and right, and God's ways 
and doctrines astonishingly foolish and false — such is their contradic- 
tion that they who are under the law, who have every thing to do 
themselves, refusing God to do all by His Christ, they who have to do 
good, and think they do it, whose whole system and scheme is found- 
ed upon the law, even upon their doing something, who have all the 
righteousness of the law to do and to obey, (for it is impossible to have 
less, or only a part to do,) these very people cast aside the law, and 
regard not its obligation, its correction, its warnings, its terrible 
curse, its fearful threatenings, on the wicked proud pretence that it is 
not addressed to them, dear, nice pious, regenerate men, who go 
regularly to church on Sundays, to them who are under it, and who 
say they have its something to do — but it is only addressed to unre- 
generate men, to those who have not made an image to the beast, and 
had an experience, and felt what sinners they are, and so made them- 
selves, by a lie, to be imaginary good men ! Nothing scarcely could 
afford a more forcible demonstration of the truth of the doctrine of 
Christ to the people of God held in bondage by the flesh, by the strong 
man armed, and who are tempted to shut their eyes to the light, than 
the astonishing, the subtle, artful pains taken by Satan and the enemies 
of God to subvert, evade, overthrow, pervert and counterfeit the doc- 
trine of Christ and of God, the truth of His love in sending His sal- 



FAITH AND HOPE. 15T 

vation. There are those who belong to God, little children, who are 
overcome by this abominable idolatry of deceit and piety, to whom 
God saith " Little children, flee from idolatry ;" and blessed are they 
who have ears to hear and who hear, for there can be no peace and no 
rest, day nor night, to those who worship the beast and his image. 

Thus by their deceitful doctrine they overthrow and cast away from 
themselves the law of God, while at the same time they set aside 
Jesus Christ, the only Mediator between God and man, the only right- 
eousness in which we can approach unto God. For they, regenerate 
men, have not got to obey the law and do all its righteousness, be- 
cause they are regenerate men, and they will not receive Christ to do 
all the righteousness of the law for them, because they are regenerate 
men, and will do it themselves ! 

The manifest folly and lie of the regenerate, born-again, new, converted, 
altered, changed, good, pious man, who doeth good, and saves instead 
of Christ. 

This, their doctrine of a gracious work upon their hearts, by which 
they get convictions for sin, and experience a change, and then be- 
come regenerate, good, converted, pious men, going to heaven, that 
is by which they make an image to the beast, turning themselves into 
good, regenerate men, is not only a casting down of Christ, to set up 
man to do righteousness instead of Him, in a new name and shape, 
it is not only overthrowing the law, it is not only idolatry of the worst 
description, a false Christ and a false God also, it is a manifest folly, 
contradiction and absurdity. 

They get conviction for sin and an experience, (or as here, in this 
great river Euphrates they express themselves,) they get religion, 
they feel deeply and sensibly what hell-deserving sinners they are, 
and then if they feel all this they are born again, they are regenerate 
persons, going to heaven ! Thus as soon as they feel that they are 
sinners, that is, evil bad men, (for a sinner is a bad man, one who 
does wrong, transgressing the law of doing right,) as soon as they feel 
they are bad men, then they are good men ; for they are, as they say, 
born-again, new, regenerate men, who are going to heaven ! But if 
they really are such wonderful men, so altered, so good, regenerate 
and pious, as to be born again and going to heaven, they cannot be 
such bad men, such sinners as they say they are. Therefore being 
now changed, or turned into such good men, the feeling must be a lie 
when they say they feel they are such bad men, such hell-deserving 
sinners. For if they really are such good men, it is a lie that they fei 1 
to be such bad men. But the feelings being a lie, the regenerate man, 
the new birth they pretend to have undergone, the gracious work 
they say they have had is a lie, for it all depends upon, and all comes 
from the feelings. Therefore all is a lie. Out of their own mouths 
they betray and condemn themselves, for if it is true they are such 
bad men, it is not true they are such good men ; but if it is true they 
are such good men, they feel a lie when they feel they are such bad 
men. 

Thus the folly and contradiction of their faith and hope is as great 
as its wickedness. Their folly is manifest— for according to their own 
declarations of their deep feelings, the regenerate man, the false Christ, 
who doeth good, is a bad man, a very bad man, a hell-deserving sin- 
ner ; therefore their change and regeneration and birth is from bad to 
bad, which is therefore a bad change, a bad regeneration, and a bad 
birth, and the gracious work of which they boast, is a very bad and 
wretched work , for it found them bad men and it leaves them bad 
men, regenerate sinners, as they say they are, deserving of hell. Thus 
14 



158 THE pious christian's 

they beget a bad man from a bad man, which is quite natural, and 
ail ihat can or ever will come from a bad man. But this bad man, 
this regenerate sinner, does good and is going to heaven, therefore he 
is a very good man, so good that they feel sure they are going to 
heaven, because they feel so deeply and sensibly that they are such 
sinners, that is, such bad men. 

To such folly and madness does God, who recompenseth, deliver 
up them that profess to be wise, and who are wise in their own con- 
ceits, who despise and laugh at the glorious wisdom and holiness and 
truth of God. They trust and rejoice in this bad man, and refuse 
Christ, the righteous man from heaven. They are sure they are going 
to heaven, not because they are righteous, but because they feel they 
are wicked : not because they fulfil the righteousness of the law, but be- 
cause they feel they do not fulfil it ! If what they feel is true, and they 
are certain it is, (for they feel it deeply and sensibly,) then they are 
sinners, they are transgressors and wicked ; and yet these wicked per- 
sons are quite sure they are going where there are no wicked, and 
where there is no wickedness ! 

Hereby they plainly show that they are liars, and do not believe 
what they say. For they say they are such great sinners, they feel it 
deeply and sensibly. But if in truth they knew and believed it, they 
could not possibly imagine that their piety, the piety of sinners, done 
by sinners, was such a good thing as they believe it to be; that so 
much good came from them and their doings ; yea, such good as to 
go to heaven therein, and to stand in the presence of God therein! 
If they knew and believed that they were sinners, they would know 
and believe that the only good which is good, even righteousness, in 
which is no sin, comes not from man in any form, shape or name, but 
from God only, and is His work, gift and doing only, even His living 
Word, Jesus Christ, without having which righteousness and truth in 
the inward parts, receiving Him to be in us, that is believing, there is 
no such thing as going to heaven. 

Men would not be suffered to fall into such snares of folly, contra- 
dictions and lies if they feared God and His law, if they were simply 
honest men, as men. and sought after honesty or righteousness. But 
when they forsake the law and seek not to do right, according to 
God's commandment, setting up and loving piety and feelings, and 
their religious inventions and whoredom better than the good actions 
and righteous conduct which God commands by His law, to be done, 
towards all men, they have forsaken God and turned their backs upon 
Him, whole vein righteou-ness and righteous conduct, to all men, at 
all times. They havr forsaken all truth and real wisdom, and are for- 
saken of God, and are given up to all manner of folly a: d falsehood. 
it is His just and lighteous recompense and judgment. " The fear of 
the, Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding." 
When men seek after other wisdom, which is not wisdom, rather than 
to depart from evil, God leaves them to their own ways, tney become 
entangled in folly, madness and lies, as it is this day with the earth, 
the Pious Christians. 

The saints of old never dreamt of such a foolish and evil doctrine as 
the re generation of the pious Christians, whereby they make the Image 
of the Beast. 

The saints of old, Jews inwardly, (not outward in the flesh,) who 
trustsd in God, never dreamt of becoming doers of righteousness by 
any work upon them, nor of obtaining blessing by their doing. They 
had not received the blessing, even everlasting righteousness, but they 
waited for it, even for Christ, longing after Him. Now if righteous- 



FAITH AND HOPE. 159 

ness, and the blessing which accompanies it, could come in any other 
way, either from man or from man worked upon, they would have 
sought for it that way, instead of longing after Christ to come unto 
them, and waiting upon God for Him ! If it came from man at all, 
they would have obtained it. But they groaned and travailed in pain, 
being in bondage under the law, earnestly longing after the righteous- 
ness of God, serving God day and night, crying continually unto Him 
for His Christ, His Salvation, that they might be delivered from the 
death of continually departing from Cod under the law of their own 
doing ; that they might receive the Blessing promised, even Christ, 
the everlasting righteousness of His saints. They had the law, they 
walked in the fear of God, according to the law, blameless, and were 
blessed accordingly ; but that was not enough, they looked to God for 
His Christ, His righteousness, for the Everlasting Blessing, and not to 
themselves. 

H'the pious Christian's doctrine of man being worked upon and be- 
coming a good man was true, they needed not to have waited continu- 
ally for Christ to come unto them, that they might enter into Him, even 
into Rest, and receive the Blessing in Him. They could have been 
" worked upon" without Christ coming at all, and then might have 
done good themselves, and so been blessed, and gone to heaven with- 
out the Christ, the righteousness of God ! They might have become 
"nice, pious, regenerate men," men rich and increased in goods, and 
that had need of nothing,— men that did not stand in need of that 
Blessing, and were not waiting for it, merely, as the evangelical Chris- 
tians teach, by a "gracious work upon their hearts" being transub- 
stantiated into " regenerate men" by feeling deeply and sensibly that 
they were hell-deserving sinners ! All their longing and waiting for 
Christ, the Salvation, the Blessing, the everlasting righteousness of His 
saints, to come unto them, sent from God to be in them, that instead of 
labouring under the law for righteousness, and labouring in vain, they 
might be filled with righteousness, and have rest in Him,— all this 
their earnest longing after God and His righteousness was, according 
to the experimental pious Christians' scheme of redemption, quite 
useless and unnecessary, yea, moreover wicked! For as it is wicked 
in their proud eyes, to believe that Jesus Christ is come to do all right- 
eousness in and for His people, therefore it was wicked for the saints 
of old to look for Him to come to do it. 

Thus the saints of old, Jews inwardly, waited for Christ, and saw 
Him afar off. They believed in Him who was to come, while the 
Christians deny Him who is come, and set up themselves, or their 
transmuted selves, even the beast and his Image, to be Everlasting 
righteousness to themselves, by themselves, by a lying work upon 
themselves, tenying the Lord of glory! 

Whether we live, or whether we die, we cannot be blessed unless 
we receive God in His Holy One Jesus, the Christ, to be with us and 
in us doing all righteousness in us, and for us ; because we cannot be 
blessed in man, in ourselves, in sin, but only in Him, in righteousness. 
We put off by his death the evil heart which is enmity and full of law, 
and we put on Him, His spirit and heart, and mind, which is love. If we 
belong to God, and God hath ordained us unto this Everlasting life, to 
be blessed in Christ Jesus, His Son, we shall hear His voice, we are 
waiting for this Blessing of righteousness, even for Him, the salvation 
of God, to enter into us and save us from sin, — to enter into Him that 
we may be blessed, and no longer depart from God by doing iniquity, 
and no longer be separated from God by our sins, and no longer be 
under wrath by the law. After this great salvation, Israel of old, the 
fathers, waited day and night upon God, seeing Him afar off, longing 



160 the pious christian's 

after Him, longing after righteousness ! even Christ ! They knew Him 
in His death in the blood, they were sprinkled with the blood of 
atonement, but they*longed after a still greater Salvation, the covenant 
promised, even the glory of His resurrection, to receive His Spirit to 
be in them, that they might no more depart from God. They did not 
think that they had the Blessing, that they were justified and righteous 
before God by their doings ; they did not think the Word of God a lie, 
which says, " In thy sight shall no flesh living be justified ;" therefore 
they waited for Christ to enter into Him, to be justified in Him, that is, 
to have Him to do all righteousness in them, and be their righteous- 
ness. They sought after Him to be one with Him, God's righteous- 
ness, and they saw Him afar off, and died in the faith and hope of Him, 
and in Him, in that glorious holy spotless righteousness, they stand 
and live for ever, without sin, in the presence of God — (none can meet 
God in joy, and without perishing, without this righteousness,) — but 
while they had it not upon the earth, they were in suffering and bond- 
age, and in fear of death by the law. But they hungered and thirsted 
after Christ, their hope was in God, and they are blessed, for they have 
entered into the righteousness they thirsted after. They in heaven 
will rejoice in the presence of God, when the hearts of the children are 
turned towards them to have the same hope which they had, and to re- 
ceive the same glorious Holy righteousness, the same Christ of God, in 
whom they live, and stand in righteousness before God, even Jesus of 
Nazareth, the Christ who was delivered for our offences, and raised 
again for our righteousness, even our justification ! Blessed are all they 
that hear Him, and whose hope is in the Lord their God, not in a 
beast, nor an image of a beast, not in man, nor in regenerate, nor any 
kind of man, but in God only ! 

How the image of the beast, the regenerate, feeling, imaginary good 
man, lohich they make themselves, is instead of God, and is to them 
an evidence of God. 

They set up the Image of the beast, his feelings and experience, be- 
fore faith. It is instead of faith, for they say if they have an experi- 
ence, they have faith. So certain is this, that they count faith in God 
as a secondary thing. They would not receive as a brother, and as a 
believer, one who professed faith in God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
They would immediately say, " That is all very well, but that won't do! 
where is your evidence ? Can you give your experience ? Have you 
felt? Have you had convictions for sin? Havi you experienced a 
change ? Do you feel deeply and sensibly that you are a sinner ? If 
you do, then you have the Evidence, and you are a believer I" But if 
not, you have no evidence, you are not a believer, you will surely be 
damned, unless you can show your experience! Thus God, that is 
faith in God, comes after their god, and after faith in their god, even 
after themselves, after their feelings, and after their experience, that 
is, after the Image of the beast. For they insist upon it, it is their first 
essential requirement, it is absolutely necessary first to make and have 
this sham-new man, this feeling, regenerate man, with his feelings and 
experience, before you can believe in God. You must first have an 
experience, and feel deeply and sensibly, that is, you must first make 
this false man, this image of man, and then, and only then, if you have 
made this Image, you are a believer in God, for he is instead of God ! 
Thus they set tip themselves, their regenerate selves, the Image of the 
beast, first and before God ; and if you have this image, then, after 
that, God and His Christ, His Salvation, all follows as of course, there 
is no doubt of it, you are a believer ! 

Thus they place their piety, their experience and sensations, that is 



FAITH AND HOPE. 161 

themselves, the Image of the beast, first and before God ! and call it 
all Evidence ! They say with all the pride and self-sufficiency of idol- 
aters, " Do you fed? Do you feel deeply and sensibly? Have you 
experienced a gracious work upon your heart ? Can you tell your ex- 
perience? Can you produce the evidence? Do you feel the plague of 
your own heart ?" (For they do not hesitate to pervert and wrest the 
Scriptures to their own abominations, quoting them pell-mell with all 
confidence, and put the wine of Sodom into the golden vessels of the 
Temple.) They say if you have all this, if you have experienced re- 
ligion and got a change of heart, then you are a child of God, you are 
a believer, your title is clear, you will go to heaven, you may be en- 
couraged to hope that you will ! Thus God and His righteousness, His 
gift and work is out of the question, this image to the beast is the first 
thing, it is indispensable and all sufficient ! Then they kill those who 
will not make an image to the beast saying to them, " "if you have not 
this precious experience, this gracious work, if you do not get a change 
of heart, and get a regenerate man inside of you, there is no hope for 
you, you are not bom again, you will surely go to hell /" Thus they 
talk, boldly, proudly and impudently, killing men, destroying them, 
driving them to madness, desperation and crime. 

Thus God and His Gift, His Christ, His Salvation, comes all after man, 
and after His works, and after His sensations and feelings, and after 
the imaginary man, after the image to the beast, and after man's 
feeling deeply and sensibly and being very pious ; and if you 
only set up the Image first, that is, get the feelings inside of you, then 
you are a believer in God, you are a worshipper of God, there is no 
doubt of it, and you will be saved without God, without righteousness, 
without His Christ,— all by the beast and His image, that is every thing, 
and that will do instead of God, for it is " the gracious work of God !"" 
Never was there more deceitful and deceiving, mure terrible idolatry 
and delusion ! Thus they deny God and His Christ, thus they are turned 
away from the faith, thus they say in fact, "Begin without faith, with- 
out God, get an experience, get religion first, get feelings first, get con- 
victions, get the image^ set up yourselves first, and then after you 
have got all this (for ail this is first,) then you have faith, you have Sal- 
vation, you have Christ, you are a child of God — it all follows of course 
after the image of the beast ! That is the essential, get it first, set up 
That first, and then it is all right, you are going to heaven! yea, if 
you make and have this image, as surely as if God zcas your God, and 
you received Him by Jesus Christ to reign over you." 

Thus they set up the image to the beast before God and above God, 
and altogether in the place and instead of God ! It is instead of God 
and faith in God, for if a man has these feelings, this image, then he has 
faith, he is a believer, so it is instead of faith and instead of God ! and 
if a man has not got this image, these feelings and experience, this sham 
new man, he has no faith, he is not a believer ! Thus both affirmatively 
and negatively, this image, this feeling regenerate man, even their vile 
s elves, is their God, and is to them instead of God ! 

Their abominations are worse than those of the first beast. 

Instead of the works of man which the first beast sets up, they set 
up the feelings and experience of a sham-new man, an imaginary man 
which is an image they make for man, an Image to the beast. This 
creature they set up instead of and above the Creator, rather than be 
saved by His work, even His Christ doing all righteousness in and for 
us. This imaginary man with his worked-up sensations and feelings, 
is not only more deceitful but it is more vile and abominable than the 
abomination which the other beast sets up. For the works of man 
may be sometimes good and profitable to men, but their feelings, their 
14* 



162 



THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN S 



being born again (as they falsely call it) are good for nothing and profit 
no one. For what profit does a man do to any of his fellow creatures 
by labouring and pretending to feel deeply and sensibly that he is a 
sinner ? Thus their abomination is more vile than that of the other 
beast over whom in their pride they glory so much. It is worse, for 
the works which men do may be some of the good works of the law, 
which when men do to each other it is good for them and they are 
blessed in their deed ; but the feelings are instead of all works of any 
kind and are a substitute for them all. They are the abominable broth 
which the Prophet has described, a horrible religious mixture boiling 
and bubbling up out of their hearts, full of scum and filth. They work 
up their feelings, and work up one another, and make themselves drunk 
with ecstacyand excitement which they call their sweet seasons, till 
they imagine from their wonderful and glowing feelings that they 
please God wonderfully aud are actually in possession of every virtue 
and righteousness, forgetting the word of God, its truth and soberness 
of mind, that " he that doeth righteousness is righteous : ' whatever that 
righteousness may be, whether it is good for man which man doeth 
to man, or whether it is righteousness before God, even His Son, 
dwelling in us, and in which we can stand in the presence of God with- 
out fear. They make themselves drunk with their feelings, and content 
themselves with blessing their fellow creatures in imagination, 
words and feelings, without doing. They require no righteousness to 
do it, for to feel is enough, righteousness is not necessary to them 
from God nor from the law of their own duty, for if they feel and have 
an experience, it is all that is necessary, then they have all that God 
could give them ! and they are going to heaven, and without righteous- 
ness that is without salvation. This dreadful deceit and licentious 
wickedness, they think is eminent piety, a knowledge of the Gospel far 
beyond what others possess ; this is experimental religion ! 

These very persons who have brought what they call salvation to be 
a mere sensation, feeling and imagination, without righteousness either 
of God or of man, without doing all that ought to be done which is 
good to do, themseives, and without having God by Jesus Christ to do 
it all for them— who have reduced both the Law and the Gospel of 
God to a mere feeling, a bloated, puffed up self-admiring disgusting 
talk of sin and filth which they pretend to feel deeply— these very per- 
sons cry out with contempt or with rage and fury against the doctrine 
of God, because he truly and verily saves by righteousness all them that 
trust in Him, giving them all things freely ever for nothing by Jesus 
Christ, doing all righteousness in "them and for them, they doing 
nothing and having nothing to do, no ! not a finger to move in this 
great Salvation !— doing nothing of it, receiving all in Christ Jesus, — 
(not that nothing is done, God forbid, for then they would be miserable 
men and accursed, but doing nothing because God doeth all !) There- 
fore it is manifest that their wicked rage and fury against the Faith 
is nothing but the rage and fury of the evil man against God, in hatred 
against Him, because He is good, because He doeth all things for His 
people and all is done ! But they neither want to do it themselves nor 
to have it done for them. It is not as they imagine because they have 
a great desire and intention to do a great deal themselves ; far from 
it! their whole system is nothing but feeling and sensations, hav- 
ing nothing done for them, and doing nothing themselves, while they 
will have no God and Saviour to bless them by doing all things for 
them. Their delusion is greater than that of the first beast. He says, 
if you do good works then you believe, you worship God. They say 
if you do wicked works, (that is if you feel truly that you do them, 
if you feel that you are a sinner,) then you are a believer ! The first 
beast will make himself a saint, the other glories in being a sinner. 



FAITH AND HOPE. 



163 



The first will ascend into heaven to bring Christ down ; the second des- 
cends into hell and the grave, to find Him there. 

Their doctrine that their Experience and Piety are an Ev idence of faith 
is Wickedness and Folly. 

They say they believe in God and are saved by faith, and that 
their piety and experience are only an evidence of faith, and are first 
necessary to show that we have faith, for the Scripture saith, ; - / will 
show thee my faith by my works." It is the very deceit and strong de- 
lusion of the devil, thus to set up works, piety, feelings, experience, or 
anything whatever, as an evidence of faith, and to say if you have 
them you are a believer. It is the folly of setting up the evidence of 
a thing before its existence. They are* turned upside down, and per- 
vert the Scriptures, turning them upside down, wresting them to iheir 
own destruction. For it is utter destruction to look for righteousness 
without God, that is, without faith, without first receiving it from 
God. When the Scripture says, " / will show thee my faith by my 
works," it signifies the very truth, viz.: that the works surely show 
forth the faith ; but it does not therefore signify their lie, that the works 
are first, and then the faith comes afterwards. * God forbid ! When the 
Scripture says, " The heavens declare the glory of God," it signifies the 
very truth, viz. : that the heavens show forth the glory of God ; but it 
does not therefore signify a lie, that the heavens are first, and then God 
comes afterwards. God* forbid ! The works of faith are the works of 
God, therefore faith is first, and the works afterwards, because God is 
first and His works afterwards. But when the works of man are set 
up before faith, man is set up before God. Christ and His branches 
in Him, is a good tree which bringeth forth good fruit ; but it would 
be foil} to say, get the fruit first, and the tree will follow ! How much 
more is it folly and wickedness to teach that you must get the corrupt 
fruit of a corrupt tree, even the works and feelings of man first, and 
then Christ, the good tree, with His good fruits, will all follow ; then 
you are a believer, and the fruits of the corrupt tree are an evidence 
of the good! bV The fruits of righteousness are by Jesus Christ" 
therefore we first believe and receive Him to do all things for us, be- 
fore there are or can be any fruits of righteousness, any good works, 
or any good towards God, or any evidence that we have faith in God ! 

Their doctrine is also wickedness, for it is setting up Baal, the beast 
man, and his works aud feelings first, before and instead of God and 
His works, His Christ. They first do good, they do something, they 
get an experience, and then they are delighted, for they are sure that 
it is an evidence that the) are 'believers ! Thus they think first to 
make themselves believers by doing something! A man might as 
well think to make an earthly man by doing something, as to think 
of making a heavenly man, a believer, by his feeling or doing some- 
thing. All that are of God, His creation,* His people, hear the words 
of God, they are already His people : " It is He that hath made us, not 
we ourselves." We hear and believe, because God hath created us, 
just as surely as w T e breathe and live, only because He hath created 
us ! They that hear are as surely the children of God, as they that 
breathe are children of men. Butas a man cannot say, I will breathe, 
and then I will be a living man, so we cannot say, I will hear, I will 
do something, I will be pious, and feel deeply and sensibly, and then 
I shall be a believer, a child of God ! This wickedness of feeling, get- 
ting an experience, or of doing something, being pious, and thereby 
making himself a believer, a heavenly man, a branch in Christ the true 
vine, is sweet and delightful to the wicked one, even the pious man, 
the fiesh : therefore he delights in his feelings and doings as an evi- 



164 THE pious christian's 

dence of what he thinks he is and has made himself. To believe that 
at this cheap rate he is a child of God, by this piety and experience, 
and not by the everlasting will and good pleasure of God the Creator 
of His people, throws him into ecstacies and transports of joy ! He 
takes his feelings and transports to be heavenly sensations, holy expe- 
rience ! he calls it the work of the Spirit ! It is sweet to him to think 
that he, by his experience and pious exercises, should have God, and 
Christ, and heaven, and glory, all at his command ! And then, filled 
with rapture at the contemplation of what he thinks he has made him- 
self, he cries out, with tears of joy in his eyes, " What grace ! what 
wonderful grace ! ichat love ! how sweet it is /" and thinks, as he drinks 
deeply of this deceitful wine of Sodom, which fills with drunken joy, 
that he is a wonderful believer in the Grace of God! Whereas, he 
only believes and rejoices in himself, in what he thinks he is, what he 
feels or has felt, and what he has done, and what great and wonderful 
things he is going to get and obtain for himself by going on in all 
these deceitful whoredoms and abominations ! 

They talk boldly and impudently of Christ and His righteousness, 
after they have set up their image, that is, are sure that they are 
something, and have felt and had an Experience ; and their Expe- 
rience, even the Image, is an Evidence of faith, even of God, and His 
Gift, and His Christ! Not so ! It is a delusion of Satan ! Their feel- 
ings, and their feeling regenerate man, their piety and their works 
felt and experienced by this false man, are the works of man, and 
they are, as in their hearts they understand them to be, an Evidence 
of the ability, efforts and power of man ; they are the fruits of a cor- 
rupt tree, the Evidence of wickedness. They cannot be an Evidence 
of God, even of Faith in God, for they are not the works of God! 
They are sin, for they go before Faith ; and " whatsoever is not of 
faith," which does not come after and from faith, u is sin." Nothing 
good can be before Faith ; and the reason is manifest, because nothing 
good can be before God ! The works which are of Faith are of God 
by Jesus Christ ; He doeth them, and they are righteousness and every 
good word and work. He doeth them in His people, His branches 
who are joined with IJim by faith, and are living branches in Him, 
filled with Him, the Life in them. They are not works done, and feel- 
ings felt by man. the flesh, the first man, (which His people were be- 
fore they entered into Him,) for that man, the child of man and not of 
God, never doeth good, as God hath spoken, and what God hath spoken 
is true. The works which are not of faith are sin, for they are not the 
works of Christ done in His people who believe, they are the works of 
that man who is sin. There can be no faith in God where the works 
of man are, for all that comes from him and out of his heart is sin. 
God is only pleased with His Son Jesus Christ, who is righteousness, 
and with His sons in Him, one with Him, cleansed by His blood from 
all their past sins, and filled by Him with everlasting righteousness. 
Jesus Christ is in them, and God is with them, for He dwelleth in Him, 
His holy Temple, His Son whom He hath sent. Where God is, there 
is righteousness and no sin ; and He is first and before all. 

Man is set up before God when the piety and feelings of man, or 
whatever proceeds from him, is put first before the righteousness 
which comes from God. Man doeth the works of man, and they are 
not faith ; God doeth the works of faith, and giveth the righteousness 
which is of faith ! Therefore when man's works are set up as an Evi- 
dence of faith, even of God's works, man is setup instead of God, as 
an Evidence of God, that is, as God himself, showing that he is God. 
Such is the pit, and the snare, and the fearful condition into which 
their pride, self-conceit, and wisdom has led them, even them — not 



FAITH AND HOPE. 165 

the Sea, not professed enemies, but the inhabiters of the Earth, the 
religious world, the professed servants and followers of God! God 
revealed it all of old, saying, " Fear, and the pit, and the snare are upon 
thee, O inhabiter of the Earth /" and it is fulfilled in them this day. 

Thus hath God confounded the wise, and turned their wisdom into 
folly ! thus they who are so wise, teach that man's piety is an Evidence 
of God's righteousness, even of Faith ! thus the wise teach that a man 
must have an Evidence of Faith before he has any Faith, and if he 
does the piety and has the Experience, then it is an Evidence of Faith 
before there is any Faith, and the Faith follows of course ! Thus, they, 
the Earth, are turned upside down ! reversing and overthrowing all 
truth, even the truth and order of God in all things. For it is the con- 
fusion of Sodom to set up the piety of man before the righteousness of 
God ! the doings of man before the doings of God ! the power of man 
before the power of God ! even wicked man before God, and the filthy 
things which come from man, as an Evidence of having and receiving 
the glorious gift, the beauty of holiness, even Jesus Christ, the perfec- 
tion of the righteousness of God ! 

Their Evidence is unutterable abomination. It is the man who sinnetk^ 
the man of sin, showing- by his Evidence that he is God. 

Thus hath God given over the pious divines, with their divinity and 
piety to madness and folly, for " He maketh the diviners mad^ who 
will not receive the true wisdom, but put their confidence in earthly 
wisdom, exalting it above the wisdom of God. Which earthly wisdom 
of man is good when lawfully used, to plough the land and throw in the 
wheat and cummin, to plant and sow and build, but not to build up 
the house of God which is in heaven. When men with their earthly 
wisdom vainly attempt to reach up to heaven, putting it, (and thus 
putting themselves) on a level with the wisdom of God, it becomes 
madness and crime. It is wisdom for man to fear God and His law, 
and obey His commandments given him upon the earth, for all are 
His servants, we all are His offspring, (though all are not His Israel, 
His first born son in Christ.) He considereth the conduct of all men, 
and deals justly and righteougly with all, recompensing vengeance 
upon His adversaries. It is wisdom in earthly man when he fears the 
law, and does many things or even some things. It is wisdom when 
fearing and trembling, (as who would not?) at the righteous judg- 
ments of God and his terrible law against all wrong doing, he enter- 
tains just, humble and proper sentiments. It is wisdom, such as it is, 
and as far as it goes, when earthly men, to whom God has given to 
live on the earth, both do and feel aright ; the least atom of that 
which is right is not to be despised ; good qualities, even in a horse, 
have their value. But when this wisdom and prudence of man, this 
wisdom of the flesh, by which he trembles, as well he may, at the ter- 
rors of God and His unsearchable power, by which his conscience 
shakes, as well it may, at the consciousness of his own iniquity, when 
this wisdom of earthly men, exercised in perceiving, thinking, feeling 
and acting, is distorted and called faith in God, and worshipping God, 
and an Evidence of faith in God, even an Evidence of God, that He is, 
(as He is indeed with them that believe, receiving His Christ, His sal- 
vation,) then that which otherwise in its proper place and lowly state 
and uses was an earthly wisdom for man on the earth, is no longer 
wisdom, but becomes insolent pride, the pride of Satan, and madness 
and folly. For to say as they say, " Do your works and piety first, and 
then you believe ; feel and get an experience first, and if you do, then 
you are a believer," is as great folly and madness as if one should say, 
^get light and heat first, and then you will get the Sun, which gives them 



166 THE pious christian's 

afterwards /" This madness and folly the pious diviners are guilty of, 
and thus God hath made them mad, and turned them upside down 
with their own wonderful wisdom, and hath caused the wise to fall 
into the pit of their own craftiness, who have proudly put confidence 
in their own vain reasoning* and wisdom, and have set at nought the 
wisdom of God ! For thus they reason and say, " We will have no sun 
first, to give us the light and heat! No! we will first bring forth light 
and heat ourselves, as an Evidence of the sun, and if we produce them, 
we shall have the sun! then, and not till then, there will be a sun, for 
then there will be Evidence of a sun /" Such is their madness, pride 
and folly ! So they say, " Wc will not first believe in God and Him 
■whom He hath sent ! Wc will not look to God, and acknowledge Him to 
be the Lord; we will not receive life and righteousness from Him first! 
J\"o ! first ourselves ! Our piety and experience first, then God and His 
rigli teousness after us ! We will be pious first, and feel and get a genu- 
ine experience first, and that is an Evidence of God and of His Christ, 
that wc believe in God, that we have His salvation, His righteousness, 
and arc going to heaven! Jifter our piety and feelings, faith in God 
follows of course, and His salvation and all follows, and ice arc going 
to heaven /" 

It is the deceit of the devil, a lie of the father of lies. It is the pride, 
madness raid folly of wickedness. It is the wickedness of the fool, 
professing himself to be pious and wise, who says in his heart " There 
is no God who does, till I first do ; but when I begin and do, and show 
the Evidence, even my piety and my deep feelings and my experience, 
then there is evidence of a God! it is I who do! Yes! then there is a 
power, there is doing good, there is righteousness then, for I give Evi- 
dence of it ; it is I who do ; I am /" Thus this man who sinneth, sitteth 
and showeth by his Evidence that he is God! 

God is first and before all ; and after Him, after faith in Him, is right- 
eousness and blessing ! Therefore they that have not faith in God and 
in Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, have not righteousness, and know 
not God. Not believing, they cannot have righteousness, and cannot 
approach unto God and worship him. But they that believe receive 
the salvation of God, His Word and power and righteousness, even 
His son, Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent, to be in them and they in 
Him ; they enter into Him, they are made one with Him, partakers of 
Him. Then believing, even entering into Him, the holy temple of 
God, they are clothed with Him, even with righteousness, and being 
righteous in Him, they worship God. For none but the righteous, 
who are without sin in Christ Jesus, (putting off in Him the sinfulness 
of the fiesh by His death and sacrifice,) can approach unto God, can 
know Him, can worship Him, can be blessed; for they are circumcised 
with Him, (not by hand and knife outwardly, but in heart,) and being in 
Him, they are brought unto God in Him, their great High Priest, living 
branches in the true vine planted by the hand of God, living stones in 
the living temple, the holy one of God, worshipping God in Him. 
There is no other way of worship ; it is entering first into Him, that is, 
believing. 

Their religion and piety with all their works of man, is pure Pagan 
idolatry. The Pagans do\vith their wooden images as the Pious Chris- 
tians do with man, and their man of feelings, their regenerate man. 
They say the wooden image is the first thing, it is an evidence or re- 
presentation of God ; if you have it you have God, you are a worship- 
per. So the Christians say of the beast they worship. They say man 
and his w r orks are first; God is not first, but man's piety, his feelings, 
his experience is first and indispensable ; if you have these you have 
all the rest; you have the Evidence, you are a worshipper, a true 



FAITH AND HOPE. 167 

believer ; there is no doubt of it. Therefore first get the image ; look 
well to that ; it is all important. Do you feel ? Have you got the Evi- 
dence ? Have you got an Experience ? Hove you felt deeply and sen- 
sibly ? that is, have you set up the image, have you got that ? Have you 
set up man, and his piety and feelings first ? Jf you have, oh ! if you 
are very pious, sincerely, truly pious, then you are a believer, you are a 
worshipper, you are doing well, you will go to heaven! The whole 
system from first to last is the worship of the beast, or the worship of 
the beast and his image, a deceit of the devil, to deny Christ, the only 
Mediator between God and man, the heavenly High Priest, the con- 
tinual daily sacrifice and oblation, and set up man, the wickkd one, 
the unclean one, instead of Christ. 

Thus the Earth, the whole religious world, as God revealed before, 
is turned upside down. Their system is the system of Sodom ; they 
pervert the holy, glorious, blessed, joyful doctrine and gladness of 
God to a vile, filthy, miserable abomination of fear, torment, death and 
destruction. Therefore they are called, the whole multitude of them, 
all their sects, streets and divisions, the city of Sodom and Egypt. 
Sodom, because of their lying perversion of the truth, and Egypt, be- 
cause the people and chosen «>f God, His Israel, His first born Son, 
those who are of God, branches of Christ, who are of the truth and 
hear His voice, even the truth, are in their midst in fearful bondage, 
in deep darkness, in dreadful suffering, overcome by the beast, by the 
doctrine of man, the abomination, groaning in captivity and longing 
after deliverance. God heareth their cry, the sighing of the prisoner, 
and he will deliver them. 

The great blessing which God will now send to His people who- long 
after blessing, even the righteousness of God. 

They talk of changed human nature and their changed hearts, and 
say they are changed men; they deceive themselves, and the truth is 
not in them. The man who is under the law can never change nor be 
changed ; whatever he may do or feel, he is still a man under the law, 
who does not the righteousness of the law, and therefore the curse of 
the law is over and in and upon him, and he has no peace. Whatever 
he may undergo or feel, ho is not righteous ; for a sure law, a some- 
thing t » do, is over him ; he does not do it, and he is a transgressor. 
He cannot believe in Christ while under this law, that is, he cannot 
have God to do while he will do himself. As sure as that law is, so 
sure is the curse upon him. The law must first be a he and God a 
liar, for such a man to be blessed. It must first be changed and say, 
u Blessed is he who doth not fulfil its righteousness* before he who is 
under it can be changed from a cursed into a blessed man. This is the 
only change which is desirable, this is the change Christ has purchased 
for us by His death, and this is the change they deny. It is a change 
from being cursed to being blessed ; from being enemies to being sons 
of God ; from being under the law to not being under it ; from being 
unrighteous to being righteous ; from being men with corrupt minds 
to being men in Christ, with the mind of Christ; (as the Holy Ghost 
saith. " We have the mind of Christ.) While under the law we are in 
sin ; he that is under the law, not fulfiling all its righteousness, is not 
righteous before God, he is not blessed nor justified. He may be of 
God, longing after righteousness, (and if so, he is blessed, for God in 
due time will fill him with righteousness, with the blessing he hungers 
and thirsts after,) but while he is under that law and has all its some- 
thing to do, he has not got the righteousness, the blessing which all 
that are of God long after. To dream of blessing in such a situation, 
without righteousness, without having God in Christ Jesus, doing 



168 THE PIOUS CHRISTIANS 

righteousness in and for us, is as if a man in sickness should dream of 
having health while he still remained in sickness ; so is the dream of 
those who dream of blessing without righteousness, who think of 
going to heaven, while they remain in hell ! 

If a man under the law was to do himself all the deeds of the law, 
yea more righteousness than all men who have lived have ever done, 
all put together, yet remaining under the law, and not receiving Christ 
the righteousness of God, he would still be a man under the law, and 
therefore a cursed man, he could not be righteous before God. For 
such a man, in such a situation, to think, by his doing something, of 
going to heaven, that is, to think of being blessed with God, is as if 
devils, being in hell, should think of being changed, and changing, 
and going to heaven by their doing something, and being worked upon 
to do, and by their feeling good, while they were in hell. Whatever 
they did, or however they said they felt and were changed, they would 
still be devils in hell. So, whatever a man does or feels, being under 
the law, yea if he does all the deeds of the law, he is still a man under 
the law, not doing all its perfect righteousness, therefore not blessed. 
He cannot deliver himself out of this situation by doing or feeling, he 
cannot put off the law from him by all feeling and doing, he must re- 
ceive deliverance, he cannot do something to deliver himself ; he must 
receive Christ to do all for him, and to be blessing and righteousness 
unto him !— that is, if God is pleased to send Him. Therefore, 
when God does send blessing to the cursed, they are a hundredfold 
more cursed who fight against His Blessing, His Christ, even His 
righteousness! ' 

Therefore, he who in this situation, not having Christ doing all 
righteousness for him, but pretending to do it himself, says he is 
changed from being a man under the law to being a man in Christ, 
from being in the flesh to being in Him, even in the spirit — he is a liar, 
he is dead and abideth in death. They who are under this law are 
the world of men, a world which is cursed, which lieth in wickedness, 
in which all are dead men, dead towards God by the law, in blackness 
and darkness. Some there are in this the natural condition of all, who 
are wise, who are taught of God, (for they belong to God,) who 
hearken to His reproof and correction, who fear God and believe His 
law, who hunger and thirst after righteousness, whose souls are athirst 
for God. They are blessed, for they shall be filled with righteousness 
and Blessing. They are the children of God, whosoever they are, 
though they groan and travail in pain, being in bondage to corruption. 
God will now bless them more than for ages past He has blessed His 
people, His inheritance, for He will give them to enter into His right- 
eousness, and to receive the Blessing, while they are on the earth, a 
favour which He granted not even to Moses, the servant of the Lord, 
while he was in the body. 

A man can no more come forth out of this death and darkness, he 
can no more put off this law from him, than he can create heaven and 
earth, than the dead can raise themselves from their graves, for it is to 
be raised from the dead. It required the resurrection of Jesus Christ 
from the dead to raise His people from this death. When God 
shines upon us with the light of His countenance in the face of Jesus 
Christ, commanding the light to shine in the darkness, then we 
see that great light, we believe. Till then we are in the wilderness, 
in the outer tabernacle, under the law, not entered within the 
veil ; and what the law says, it says to us, even to all who are under 
it, and we are what it describes all those to be who are under it. For 
four thousand years God did not give the full glory of this salva- 
tion to His people on the earth, and for twelve hundred and sixty 



FAITH AND HOPE. 169 

years He has taken it away from His people among the Christians, be- 
cause of the abomination which has made desolate. But now the time 
is at hand when this desolation shall be no longer, but He will have 
mercy upon Zion, for the time to favour her, yea the set time is come, and 
He will gather together His people to give thanks to His holy name, 
and to triumph in His praise. He will establish in these last days the 
Mountain of His Holy House and people above the tops of the proud 
religious mountains of the Earth. He will bless His people, and they 
shall be blessed in Him, not in themselves, nor in their own ways. 
But His people shall no more be called by the name which, in this day 
of the consummation of desolation, they have made the name of an 
adversary. His people shall be called Christians no longer, to which 
nation, the foolish nation, God hath said, speaking of this day, " / wilL 
slay Thee, and call my people by another name" It is the foolish na- 
tion of which Moses spake by the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Christ and 
of God, who spake in him. For all that the pious Christians do, and 
say, and teach, God saw, and knew, and revealed long before, and 
spake thereof by His prophets, how that by their folly, lies and blas- 
phemy, His people of all nations, His Israel, should be provoked to a 
holy jealousy and indignation, the jealousy of God against those who 
despise His love and Blessing, and set at naught His Christ ! 

While we are men under the law, having to do, we have not the 
Blessing, even God with us, in Jesus Christ His Son whom He hath 
sent, doing all righteousness for us. To receive Him, is to receive the 
Blessing, for He is it, the Salvation of God, who fulfilleth all the right- 
eousness of the law in all them that receive Him ; they have it not to 
do, for He doeth it, and the law is fulfilled in them. He is Everlast- 
ing righteousness to them that receive Him, and that is Everlasting 
Blessing ; He is righteousness in us, and to us, and over and upon us, 
and round about us, clothing, filling, covering us with righteousness. 
They that receive Him to be in them to do the will of God, receive the 
Blessing, the Salvation of God ; but they who set up man, or a pre- 
tended good man, an image of man, to do instead of Him, love death 
and cursing, and refuse the Life and Blessing everlasting! They that 
do not want to do the will of God, want not Him and care nothing 
about Him ! 



CHAPTER XVI. 

OF THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF THEIR HOPE. 

They talk confidently of hoping to go to heaven when they die ; they 
say, " they are encouraged to hope that they will be saved, that is. 
blessed when they die !" Such a hope is both wickedness and folly ; 
for he that is only going to be saved, is only going to believe ; to him 
God is not good' now, saving now, but He is only going to be good 
when he dies. This is not to believe in God, that He is, it is only 
thinking that He is going to be. But it is written, " He that cometh to 
God must believe that He is, 11 not that perhaps He is going to be. 
Going to be saved when we die, is going to believe when we die ; for 
he that believes is saved already while he lives from sin and evil- 
doing, but he that is not saved now from sin and evil-doing does not 
believe in God, does not trust in Him to save him by His Christ from 
15 



110 

all iniquity. How can they who trust not to God to save them to-day 
from iniquity, he going to receive His salvation and deliverance from 

sin to-morrow when they die ? Such hope is deceit and wickedness. 
It is the evil thought of the wicked man who does not fear nor believe 
the truth of the Law, therefore he does not desire to be delivered from 
all iniquity to-day while he lives ; and it is the thought of wickedness 
and pride, for he supposes he can be saved when he pleases, and 
therefore he goes on still in his wickedness, and intends to be saved 
when he dies ! 

They seek not to be saved now while they live on the earth from 
doing all iniquity, but they trust and hope that they are going to be 
saved when they die ! This is folly as well as wickedness, for it is the 
folly of looking "for an effect without a cause, even of looking for bless- 
ing without righteousness. There is no Blessing, that is salvation, 
without righteousness, such is the immutable law of Cod, which can- 
not be broken. Therefore for a man to say he hopes he is going 
to be saved, that is blessed, when he dies, is the same as saying 
he hopes he is going to be righteous and do righteousness when he 
dies! for none but the righteous are or can be blessed! It is great 
folly, deceit and lying, for a man who does not long alter righteous- 
ness now while he lives, who does not desire to do the will of God 
now, to flatter himself with the idea that he will do it and he blessed 
to-morrow when lie dies. It is impossible for any one to be saved 
when he dies, who does not seek and long after present deliverance 
from all evil-doing now while he lives ; lie does not desire to be saved 
at all, who docs not desire now to be saved from all evil-doing. For 
deliverance from evil-doing is salvation, and it cannot be when we 
die, it must be now while we live, oil not at all! 

The hope of him who expects to be saved when he dies, who long- 
olh not alter deliverance. from sin and all evil-doing while he lives, 
not desiring the true righteousness which Cod requires, even truth in 
the inward parts, is the expectation of the wicked, which. Cod hath said 
" shall perish forever." It is the expectation of those who expect hap- 
piness or blessing without righteousness. All men have such a vain 
hope which they build upon ail sorts of causes,- but they who are wise, 
who are of God, the sons of God in Christ Jesus iiis Son,* long after 
righteousness, even the only true righteousness which is from Cod, 
and they only will be blessed, because there is no Blessing without 
the true righteousness, and they who hunger and thirst after it shall be 
filled with it ! 

They who hope to obtain happiness or blessing, (or to go to heaven) 
without the righteousness of the Law of God, do not believe that 
there is a righteous God, and a righteous Late! 

Their hope is not for righteousness, and therefore it is the hope of 
wickedness. Their hope is for their own advancement and glory 
hereafter, not for righteousness. They hope that because they are 
pious as they call it, and do a few r little things now and then and go 
to church on Sundays, therefore they will obtain everlasting blessing 
and glory, that is, as they speak, that they will go to heaven when 
they die! This is no Hope in Cod! this is no hungering and thirst- 
ing after righteousness from- God ! on the contrary, it is the vain de- 
lusion of thinking that they have already got righteousness from them- 
selves, enough for heaven; and that therefore they are going to go 
there ! Their hope is to attain the effects of Everlasting righteous- 
ness, even Everlasting Blessing, without having the righteousness 
itself, the work and gift of Cod, even his Christ, but because they 
have an Experience or what they call piety ! Such a hope, because 



FAITH AND HOPE. 171 

they do pious deeds, is a vain hope ; for if they do all the righteous 
deeds of the law of righteousness it would be a vain hope to go to 
heaven therefor, because it would not be righteousness before God, 
such as is alone good for heaven ! 

But they say they hope to go to heaven, that is, to have Everlasting 
Blessing, because God is merciful ! and they hope He will be merci- 
ful to them because they are sincerely pious! This is the greatest 
wickedness and delusion of all! It is to suppose God will be influ- 
enced and moved by something which wicked men do, to break His 
Law and give Everlasting Blessing to the unrighteous who are under 
the law, and who do not obey but transgress.it : And inasmuch as God 
hath sent His only-begotten Son into the world to save them that re- 
ceive Him. by doing righteousness for them, and making them right- 
eous in Him, therefore to suppose God is going to be merciful to us 
because we are pious and do a few things, is to suppose God is going 
to be merciful to those who despise His Mercy, and who will not re- 
ceive His Salvation, even His Son whom he hath sent to be and to do 
righteousness for. all that receive Him. Herein is the Mercy of God 
by Jesus Christ, not that He violates the Law by clearing the guilty, 
but that He saves by giving us righteousness and clothing us with 
righteousness by Him, He doing it all in and for us; and they despise 
this Great Mercy, thi3 Great Salvation, they will not receive Him to 
do all righteousness, they will do a little something themselves, and 
then they say they hope God will be merciful to them, who despise 
His Mercy and reject it! They do not fulfil the righteousness of the 
law; they refuse Him whom God hath sent to fulfil it; they remain 
under the law, guilty by the law ; and yet they say they hope God 
will be merciful to them, and clear the guilty, and violate His Law, 
because they do a few things called piety ! They feel an Experience 
and look pious on Sundays, and therefore they are encouraged to 
hope that God will break His law for the sake of the little they do and 
feel, and be merciful to them who mock at His righteousness and 
Gift of Mercy by Jesus Christ! He will give Everlasting Blessing to 
them who have not Righteousness by the Law, and who refuse the 
Gift of Everlasting righteousness by Jesus Christ ! Yea, He who gives 
Everlasting Life, righteousness and Blessing for nothing to the poor 
and needy, will sell it all to them for a little piety ! 

Thus their hope is not for righteousness from God, not for His Gift, 
not for His Mercy, not for His Salvation, to be made righteous by Him, 
but their hope is to receive great things from God when they die, for 
some little things which come from themselves ! It is the Hope of 
wickedness! When the hope that is in us is not the hope and long- 
ing after the gift of righteousness from God, even present righteous- 
ness and deliverance from all sin and evil-doing while w r e live here 
on the earth, it is the hope of the wicked and of wickedness ! For 
they that are of God hope now while they live to be saved and deliv- 
ered by the right hand, of God, every day of their lives, from doing 
evil and from all unrighteousness ; but the wicked hope not and care 
not for righteousness, even to do mercy and justice to all men at all 
times, yet they hope for enjoyment and happiness! It is folly and 
wickedness to hope for Blessing or happiness without righteousness ! 
It is to suppose that there is no law of God, no truth, no justice, no 
virtue, no curse inevitable upon all evil-doing, no God who loveth 
righteousness and hateth wrong-doing, who certainly will recom- 
pense ! It is vainly to suppose and dream that we are going to be 
happy and blessed any how, whatever we are, whatever we do, how- 
ever we act! Such is the vain and foolish imagination of those who 
look for blessing, peace, or happiness without righteousness! A man 



172 THE PIOUS CHRISTIANS 

might as well expect to reap wheat or barley by sowing wind or salt, 
as expect to have Blessing or happiness without righteousness. They 
expect they are going to go to heaven because they feel, or go to 
church, or perform a few performances, while they live as men, doing 
iniquity! Thus they imagine there is no Law inflicting a sure curse 
upon all unrighteousness and wrong-doing, and in so imagining, they 
suppose that there is no God ! Such is the vain Hope of the pious 
Christians ! they expect to have the Everlasting Blessing when they 
die, without any righteousness from God or even from man, merely 
because they feel so religiously and sweetly! they are drunk with 
whoredoms! He who imagines he can ever have peace or happiness 
now or at any time, in earth or in heaven, without righteousness, and 
the righteousness which God requires by His Law, does not believe 
the truth of the Word and Law of God ! yea does not believe that 
there is a righteous God and a righteous Law ! They are of God who 
hunger and thirst after righteousness, and they are blessed, for they 
shall be filled ; but they who desire not to do the Will of God can 
never know Christ and His doctrine. For He hath said, " // any man 
will do the will of God, he shall know," but he that desireth not right- 
eousness, who desireth not to do the will of God, he can never know ! 
Blessing is far from the wicked, from them who do not the will of 
God, mercy, judgment and truth ; they are cursed while they live, 
with all their piety, much more, when the day of pride and delusion 
is at an end, they will be cursed when they die ! 

They confess, out of their own mouths, that they are departed from the 
truth, by their vain talk of going to be blessed when they die! 

Their doctrine and belief is all prospective and future, all is going 
to be; they are only going to be saved when they die, that is, they are 
only going to be righteous when they die, for the righteous are blessed 
that is saved now, and not merely going to be blessed and saved at a 
future time. Hereby they confess that they have departed from the 
truth of God and His law of righteousness, when they confess that 
they are not blessed and saved, but are only perhaps going to be ; 
hereby they confess that they do not believe, for he that believes is 
righteous and doeth righteousness and is blessed, that is saved, accord- 
ing to his faith. If they believed and had the Son, they would have 
life and righteousness, they would do righteousness, He dwelling in 
them, that is, by faith receiving Him to do it for them, and they would 
be blessed. They would be blessed now, because they would be de- 
livered now, by His mighty power, from evil works, which are con- 
demnation and death, now and forever, to all who do them. Thus it 
is that He delivers them that trust in Him from death and condemna- 
tion, even by saving them from their sins ; for it is sin which is death 
and condemnation to all who commit siu. By saying they trust, they 
hope they are going to be Messed when they die, they confess that they 
are in condemnation and death while they live, and that they do not 
believe. 

» It is madness and folly for condemned and wretched people, who 
scorn deliverance from condemnation, who despise the Christ, the sal- 
vation of God, who deliver not themselves from condemnation by 
fulfilling the righteousness of the law themselves, and who scorn to 
receive Christ to deliver them, by doing all its righteousness in them 
and for them— it is madness and folly for such people, who despise 
Blessing and Salvation, to talk of going to be blessed and saved 
when they die. For such persons to build their hopes on piety, and 
feeling deeply and sensibly, and going to church on Sundays, and all 
their other vain show and silly practices of piety, is a strong delusion 



FAITH AND HOPE. 1^3 

tat the devil, fer there is no hope but in righteousness ; heaven and 
earth will pass away before this truth can pass away. Piety saves 
them not from the curse now, and how will it save them from the 
everlasting curse when they die ? They confess it does not save them 
from the curse now, for they say they are not saved, they are only 
going to be saved. They say they suffer, (that is, they feel, as they 
*peak,) the curse now, they feel what helRIeserving sinners they are. 
Thus then they are not blessed now, with all their piety ; how then 
can it bless them when they die ? 

Their doctrine is deceit and wickedness. We are not going to be 
righteous and going to be blessed, that is, going to go to heaven ; we 
are righteous now and blessed now, departing from all iniquity by the 
power of God, according as we trust in Him, or else we are under 
wrath and in death by the law, now already, because of iniquity, and 
are cursed, and in condemnation. These things are present realities, 
not future dreams and uncertainties, as they wickedly teach and 
imagine, destroying men. For men are destroyed, whosoever they 
are, when they are led to forget the law, to forget to do right, and think 
they can do wrong, and have peace or happiness ! The least right- 
eousness has its corresponding blessing-; but v. hen we receive Him, 
to be in us and reign over us, who is everlasting righteousness, 
then we have the Everlasting Blessing. 

How t/iey have -confounded and confused all things, confounding the law 
of God with the judgment of the great Day of Judgment. 

As in their evil system there is no present blessing and salvation, 
but it is all only perhaps going to be when they die, so also there is no 
present death and condemnation, but it is all going to be, all is to them 
a lie and a dream ; there i3 nothing real now but this world, and its 
hopes and prospects ; all other things are only perhaps going to be. 
As they teach that there is no present righteousness and no present 
blessing, but they are going to be righteous and going to be blessed 
when they die, so they teach that men are only going to be damned 
when they die, there is no present condemnation and curse ; the wages 
of sin is not death, but is only perhaps going to be. 

In all things they are departed from the truth of God, building up 
their own system and inventions— in all things they are turned upside 
down, and have confounded all things. They have confounded the 
Law of God and the judgment of the great day, they have cast down 
the law of God, the law of right upon "the earth, and have postponed 
it, with its curse and condemnation, to the day of judgment. Men 
need not fear to do evil now, they may do as they list now, for there is 
no law, no curse and condemnation, sure and' inevitable now, it is 
only going to be at a future time, at the day of judgment ! And even 
then, if men please, there is not going to be any condemnation at all, 
for if they will only please to be pious and go to church on Sundays, 
then they w T Hl go to heaven. Salvation and blessing is entirely future 
and remote in their evil doctrine, and so also is condemnation ; for 
men are only perhaps going to be condemned, that is damned, when 
they die, provided they are not pious. Therefore men naturally con- 
clude that as they are only going to be condemned when they die, 
they are only going to be wicked men w T hen they die, and so they are 
not wicked men now, whatever they do ! For as they are only going 
to be condemned and eursed when they die, there is only going to be 
a law of God when they die! Thus they deceive and destroy men. 
He that transgresseth the law of God, the law of right, doing evil to 
his neighbour, is cursed and condemned, that is damned now, the curse 
is alreadv upon him. It is destroying men to lead them to imagine 
15* 



114 THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN'S 

by vain, deceiving words, that they are only perhaps going to be con- 
demned and cursed when they die ; for he that is only perhaps going 
to be cursed, is only perhaps going to be a transgressor. And they 
effectually act according to their doctrine, that there is no righteous- 
ness, no blessing, no wickedness, and no death and cursing now upon 
them that do wickedness, it is only perhaps going to be hereafter, at 
a remote and future time, which every man takes for himself to be 
never. Therefore men are persuaded in their hearts that it does not 
much matter what they do now, for they are going to be righteous, 
that is they are going to be saved and blessed when they die, and they 
are not what they are, viz., men and transgressors now, and con- 
demned now and'cursed by the law, according to what they do — but 
they are only perhaps going to be when they die! This persuasion, 
this awful delusion, has taken deep root in the earth, (the religious 
world.) Men feel, (it is a very feeling religion.) that they need not 
care for any thin?, for they may be pious when they please, and they 
think it follows, of course, that it will be all right then; they can be 
happy and blessed if they please without doing right, that is, right- 
eousness, and without believing in God to give them righteousness. 
Their doctrine is a cursed doctrine, for it bringeth cm-sing, bitterness 
and woe ! 

They deceive men as to their true condition, and destroy them; causing 
that they fear not the laic of God, on which all their measure of hap- 
piness, as men, entirely depends. 

Men are now, here in this world, wicked men, for there is a law 
upon them from Cod, working in them, to do no evil, and they do 
evil, and "the whole world lieth in wickedness." The truth, the curse. 
the certainty of God's righteous law against all unrighteousness, its 
terrible damnation upon men in their consciences, according as they 
do evil, the misery of men by the condemnation of this law, burning 
like a fire within therm is most manifest. The curse of the law pur- 
sues us for wrong-doing, like a devouring fire, wherever we go, 
wherever we may hide, it is a mountain upon our consciences, burn- 
ing with fire. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked ! The 
Earth, the religious world, the Pious Christians of this day, the very 
people who profess to know Cod, and to teach and follow His holy 
truth and doctrine, having departed from God and forsaken the truth, 
following the wisdom of men, deceive and destroy men by their false 
doctrines, tolling them in all their wretchedness and suffering, while 
the death', the curse, the damnation of the law is upon them, gnawing 
secretly at their hearts and burning in their consciences like a con- 
suming fire, that they, being already condemned, that is damned, art 
only perhaps going 'at some future time to be condemned, that is 
hereafter, when they die; and they are not, even then, going to be 
damned at all, provided they will only listen to their wickedness and 
become pious, taking the mark of their piety and some one of their 
names, or religious denominations. 

. Men are condemned, that is damned, already ; they are not perhaps 
going to be when they die. He that believeth not that Jesus is the 
Christ, the Deliverer, who delivereth from sin and condemnation, 
doing righteousness for all that believe, — he who recciveth not Him, 
the salvation of God, and is not saved now by Him from sin and in- 
iquity, is condemned now, that is damned, and in death and damna- 
tion by the law of Cod now already. All are by nature in this con- 
demnation, more or less, under the law. When the day comes in 
which men will receive recompense according to their several deeds 
and actions, it will not be that then first they are going to be con- 
demned, that is damned, for they are that already, according to their 



FAITH AND HOPE. 175 

conduct, and the death, the curse of the law is upon them already* 
and covers them. That day will he the day of wrath, of payment and 
recompense, when the just sentence of the law will he executed upon 
eveiy condemned man, condemned by his own conscience, according 
to h.a several deeds done in the body contrary to right, that is, con- 
trary to the law of God, which is the only right, without which ihere 
would be neither right nor wrong. 

The condition of the World. 

The whole world lieth in wickedness, and is in death and cursing 
because of evil-doing ; and we might as well hope and trust that the 
whole world was going to do righteousness and going to be saved, at 
that day when sudden destruction cometh upon it unawares, as to hope 
and trust that any one of us in this world who doeth evil, and is not 
saved from unrighteousness and iniquity by the Christ, the power of 
God, while he lives, is going to be righteous and going to be saved 
when he dies and goes to judgment. In this world of daikness and 
death, where men are evil, and act falsely and deceitfully, and are con- 
demned already, and are in torment and* cursing, having their reward 
in themselves, suffering the bitterness of death and its sting, by the 
law which condemns them in their consciences; who, while they say 
there is no law, are in burning, and as it were in flames by its fire, in this 
world of sin and misery, these are those, wicked among the wicked, 
enemies among enemies, cursed among the cursed, men among men, on 
whom God will have mercy, plucking them out of the fire. He does this 
by causing them to hear His word, which He sends to heal them. He 
causeth them by His power to receive and hearken to His instruction. 
He turneth them and they are turned. They hear His voice, for they 
are of God, His Israel, His people, whom he hath created for His glory. 
They know not His mercy and love while they are condemned with 
the world, by the law which is over them, and over all who do in- 
iquity. They know not love, they onl.y know condemnation, while 
they are in condemnation, being condemned in their consciences, and 
under wrath because of sin. They are not blessed, they are not saved. 
God hath compassion upon them and loveth them, though they are 
enemies, and in sin and death. He loveth them, and searcheth them 
out, and flndeth them, and sendeth His salvation, His Son Jesus Christ, 
His Word, to bless them, by turning them away from their iniquities, 
for that is the curse, even unrighteousness, even sin. They turn to 
Him, for he it is who turneth them ; they repent towards God, for He 
it is who giveth repentance unto Israel and remission of sins. They 
cry unto God, for they are of God, a chosen seed, the members of 
Christ, branches of Him, though dead and withered by sin. When 
they are translated from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God, 
from doing unrighteousness to doing righteousness by Jesus Christ, 
then only having life in Him, they know and believe the grace and 
mercy of God, after which they have been longing and crying out for 
it ! They are not under wrath any more, but under grace ; they taste 
and see that the Lord is good. They live, but they live by faith, re- 
ceiving ail from God. They do nothing for God, but God who loveth 
them, doeth all for them. While they are under the law they are in 
death and in enmity, for they are in the flesh and in sin, not fulfilling 
the righteousness of the law, because they do not receive God by Jesus 
Christ, to fulfil it all for them, dwelling in them. In this condition, like 
the saints and apostles before Christ arose from the dead and was glori- 
fied, they may believe and hope in the blood of atonement, which cleans- 
eth from all sin, but they only have momentary life and righteousness, 
not everlasting righteousness and salvation ; for being under the law. 



1*76 the pious christian's 

and having something to do, they are continually doing something 
which brings them into condemnation again. They have not yet re- 
ceived the blessing, the righteousness which cometh down from heav- 
en, which is more than blood-shedding, after which the saints of old 
waited, and longed for this salvation of God, with earnest longing, 
which is Jesus, the Christ and salvation of God. They receive, God 
giveth, they believe ; and the spirit of Christ and of God being in them, 
doing all righteousness in them, fulfilling the righteousness of the law 
in them, they depart from iniquity, they depart no more from God, and 
are blessed, according to the promise and everlasting covenant of 
God. 

This covenant God confirmed with many, after He was risen from 
the dead and glorified. Then He, the Bridegroom, was with and in 
His people on the earth, doing righteousness, and they were a right- 
eous people. He confirmed this covenant with many for a week of 
seven hundred years, till the Christian abomination of a beast, to do 
righteousness instead of Christ, was set up in the midst of the week, 
and He, the Sacrifice and Oblation, was, at the end of the week, alto- 
gether taken out of the way. Since then, it has been a desolation of 
twelve hundred and sixty years, till this day the consummation of 
desolation. 

Their doctrine is licentiousness and lasciviozisness. 

The doctrine they preach and teach is dreadful wickedness, it is 
licentiousness and iasciviousness so artfully and deceitfully disguised 
under the name and solemn look of being pious, that they themselves 
first, and all others after them, are completely deceived thereby. They 
lead men to imagine that they are only perhaps going to be damned, 
by telling them that if they do not join them and become pious, then 
they will certainly be damned. Hence men suppose that they are in 
a pretty tolerable situation now, whatever iniquity they do, that they 
are not in death now, they are not under the curse now, they are not 
what they are, condemned and wretched men because of sin, but they 
are only perhaps and perchance going to be damned hereafter when 
they die, if they do not turn pious! Then they feel and persuade 
themselves that they need not fear being damned hereafter at all, for 
they have only got to take the trouble to be very pious, or merely to 
be piously disposed, and go to church on Sundays, and then living 
and dying in the depths of cursing bitterness and damnation, the 
damned will not be damned at all. Thus do they deceive and destroy 
men : it is a most evil and damnable doctrine. It is the doctrine that 
there is no law of God now, there is no God now, there are no wages 
of sin now, there is no death and sorrow and curse now, but all is 
only perhaps and probably hereafter going to be ! It is this doctrine 
virtually, in all truth, and force, and power, and as much as it could 
be, though not verbally confessed by them ! Their deceit is such that 
they take good care to hide and conceal the truth and force of their 
own doctrines by vain words and pious protestations, so that while 
they teach and love the doctrines of the devil, they deny it all, and 
show written formulas and creeds quite different, and protest they do 
not teach and believe the things which they teach and believe and in- 
sist upon, opposing the truth. For they are not honest even to them- 
selves, even in lying, but lie deceitfully and deny their own lies. 

They destroy men by their doctrines, for men are wretched and 
miserable, more or less cursed, exactly in proportion as they fear or 
fear not the law of truth and rectitude, the law of God, and as they 
do or as they do not evil. They plunge men, by their vain teaching, 
in folly, pride and self-conceit, in evil, in recklessness, in cursing, and 



FAITH AND HOPE. l h (1 

in destruction, far greater than would otherwise be upon them, if 
tearing the Law of God they heeded their ways more. They make 
them suppose and infer that the Law of God and its wrath and sure 
curse is not in, and over, and upon them now, it is only perhaps going 
to be! Therefore they have present respite and impunity for their 
evil deeds, and may do as they please, for they are only perhaps here- 
after going to be damned, at a future time, which to all of us naturally 
is never to come ! 

Thus they lead the wicked man who doeth wickedness, to believe 
that he is not a wicked man yet, nor a cursed man yet, and the wrath 
and curse of God's law is not over and upon him yet, but it is only 
perhaps going to be hereafter when he dies. Therefore he thinks he 
is a sort of neutral man now, and if he only pleases to do a little piety 
now and then, just enough to go to beaven, and approve certain doc- 
trines, then he who is evil and only evil, and that, not now and then, 
but continually,— he will undoubtedly go to heaven ! Thus men are 
deceived, and encouraged, and hardened in iniquity, and are destroy- 
ed, being plunged in greater iniquity, for they think they are safe 
now, they are only going perhaps to be damned when they die ! But 
as they are taught to believe by their damnable doctrine that it is in 
their own power to became righteous men and go to heaven, if they 
will only do something, therefore they have no need of God either 
for hope or for fear ! Not for hope! for what is there to hope from 
God when a man, if he pleases, can by his doing a little something 
and being pious, or hopefully pious, lift himself up out of hell to 
heaven? And there is no need of fear, for why should a man fear 
God when he imagines that for something he intends doing at some 
future time, there is not going to be any judgment nor condemnation 
at all for him ! It is a terrible religion which they teach ! they destroy 
men! 

Thus by their most deceitful and most abominable doctrines, they 
deceive and destroy men, overthrowing all the Law of God; for men 
believing their lies fear not God, and are destroyed by their own wil- 
fulness, caring for nothing. Hence it is that in this day the earth is 
covered with violence and crime, and men are let loose like the brute 
beasts, with no law which they fear, and no control nor guide but 
their own selfishness and instinct. All is darkness and destruction, 
the Sun and the Moon give not their light, the stars are fallen from 
heaven, the powers of heaven are shaken by the audacity of their 
blasphemy ! darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people, 
and the earth, where their damnable doctrines and crouching cunning 
power extends, is a scene of wilfulness, recklessness, suicide, misery, 
lust, murder, dishonesty and crime. It is a consummation of the deso- 
lation of abomination ; it is the Time of which the Lord spoke, of 
which all the Prophets have written, which Time, as the Lord God 
liveth who created heaven and all that therein is, and the earth and 
all that therein is, and the sea and ail that is therein, shall be no 
longer ! 

They need not fear to do evil, and they do it without fear. 

Thus have they killed, slain, and overthrown the Law of God by 
their doctrine, even the Moon which giveth light in this dark night. 
It is all nothing at all, it is only perhaps going to be. Thus they have 
slain and cast down the Gospel of God. the Sun of light and righteous- 
ness which enlightens them that are of the day and not of the night, 
who receive God by Jesus Christ to do all things for them. Instead 
of the Power of God to do by His Gospel, they set up evil man them- 
selves, a beast, or their imaginary altered selves, an image of the beast, 



1*8 THE PIOUS CHRISTIAN'S 

to do righteousness and work salvation, instead of Christ. They have 
slain them both. Their doctrine is the most atrocious wickedness 
with the most consummate deceit and guile of vain words. They to- 
tally abstract themselves from God's Law and His fear and reproof, 
and are abandoned to the self-will and wantonness of their own way3 
and wisdom, walking in a proud and vain show of insolent piety ! 
They need not be saved now, that is, be doers of righteousness now, 
for they are going to be saved when they die and go to be judged. 
They need not fear and hearken to reproof now, and receive instruc- 
tion now, for there is nothing to fear now, they are only perhaps going 
to be damned hereafter at some remote uncertain time, and as of 
course they are going to be very pious, therefore of course they are 
not going to be damned at all, nor give any account for their mis- 
deeds. 

Thus there is no law over them at which they tremble, there is no 
truth to them in the. Word of God, it is all for other men, who are not 
regenerate and pious men as they are ! who do not feel, and sing, and 
go to church as they do ! Their doctrine is licentiousness and lascivi- 
ousness, though it appears so good and admirable to themselves and 
is wondered at by men. (For, as the Lord hath shown, they, whose 
names are not written in the book of life wonder after the beast, ad- 
miring the wonderful attainments of the pious man, and look upon 
his piety and pious appearance and personal holiness with awful ad- 
miration.) 

Such is the all-deccivableness of their unrighteousness ! And how 
or why should men fear God and fear to do evil who believe that what- 
ever they do it is all right, who, if they do a little something and feel 
that they are sinners, are going to heaven I Therefore they need not 
do righteousness now while they live, and they do not do it, and they 
need not fear to do evil, and they do it without fear! 

The character of the righteousness of those who scoff at God's 
righteousness. 

Thus by their doctrine they destroy men, and induce a man to go on 
still in his wickedness, deceiving his soul with the promise of futur,e 
salvation, while he lives a life of misery, bitterness and cursing. He 
who does evil to his neighbour and is a partaker with the thief and 
adulterer, who sitteth and speaketh against his brother, his own flesh 
and blood, backbiting with his tongue, says in his evil heart, "when I 
do good, when I become very pious, I shall be saved of course, I shall go 
to heaven of course, for then God is going to be good and gracious to 
me." Thus in his pride he is not only going to make himself good 
when he pleases, but he is going to make God good too! For when 
he is good, then God is going to be good ! Such is the abomination of 
the Christian doctrine of denying God and His Salvation, and of being 
saved on the condition of man's doing, even by man's salvation I 
Nay they have in this day arrived to such a pitch of audacity, inso- 
lence and wickedness, in totally casting aside God's commandments 
and His Law of righteous-doing, that they boldly and confidently 
teach that God is goiug to be good and they are going to heaven, not 
if they do any thing good whatever, but if they only feel good disposi- 
tions as they call their wicked sensations, if they will only feel piously- 
disposed, and feel that they w r ould like to be pious ! And these peo- 
ple who are thus going to heaven, as they insanely dream, without 
righteousness either from God or from man, without righteousness 
from any quarter at all, — without having God to do it for them, (at 
which they laugh,) and without even attempting to do it themselves, 
— who are going to go there by a mere feeling and a mere sensation— 



FAITH AND HOPE. 1*79 

these people who do nothing and for whom nothing is done, who 
have overthrown the law and the Gospel, both the obligation to do all 
righteousness and the Power by which it is done— these are the peo- 
ple who cry out with rage and fury and gnash with their teeth, lifting 
up their hands and eyes wiih pious horror towards heaven, or else 
laughing with proud scorn at the doctrine of God, the Righteousness, 
the Christ of God ! These are they who scoff at God's doing all right- 
eousness for His people, in the inward parts, in deed and in truth, by 
His Son Jesus Christ, so that they having God with them doing ii for 
them, have it not to do themselves, believing in God, standing still 
beholding the Salvation of God ! They call their atrocious wickedness 
faith and religion ! and the very Righteousness of God, which is by 
faith, they call wickedness ! 

.What is truly marvellous and wonderful is the all-deceivableness of 
unrighteousness with which they talk deceitfully of the Love of God, 
His Grace, His goodness and His mercy ! They do this deceit by tirst 
laying. the foundation of nan, and something first done by man, and 
then keeping this in mind as the beginning, the first and chief thing, 
and that God comes next, they will talk sweetly for hours together and 
preach and write sweet pious books and hymns about the "■ dear Re- 
deemer^ and the goodness of God, and the wonderful grace and sal- 
vation which is to follow after man's piety and doing! Thus they de- 
ceive themselves and others, and appear to believe in God, as they do, 
after themselves! According as it suits them, and to deceive and 
make proselytes, they will often, with great cunning, keep entirely out 
of view the foundation man, the beast, on which they build, and deny- 
that they believe in it. intending to build it up when they can. Their 
faith, their hope, their wdcked belief, that God is only good and only 
saveth when evil man does good, is pious, and does his something, is 
deceit and wickedness ! It is saying, not openly, but worse, — saying 
deceitfully and cunningly, with all the subtlety of Satan, so as to ap- 
pear not "to say it,— that God is not! He is not good! It is Athe- 
ism ! And Satan hath so biinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, 
that they call their Atheism, with its evil fruits, evangelical piety, 
vital godliness, and experimental religion ! 

Their hope is not for righteousness, therefore they are infidels, for 
they that hope not for righteousness from God, believe not in Him, 
and they that want not righteousness, do not want to know God! 

They do not hope for righteousness as the saints of old did, longing 
after Christ to come down from heaven to be in them, everlasting 
righteousness, doing the will of God in them. They laugh at the true 
faith, they have setup a different doctrine and faith, they scoff at God*3 
doing righteousness ; they have no idea and no desire of becoming 
reiigious, that is doers of righteousness, fulfilling the righteousness of 
the law, and departing from all iniquity, by the Christ of God ! They 
have made up their minds that such a thing as righteousness is ridicu- 
lous and impossible, and the very idea of it is almost laughable to 
them, i\o wonder it is impossible in their eyes, because they do not 
believe in the God of Jacob to do righteousness. It is impossible and 
a delusion to expect righteousness from the God they worship, even 
man, and they know it. Therefore righteousness, without which 
there is no heaven nor blessing, is an utter chimera to them, and 
they doubt its very existence ; for it is not in the beast they trust and 
look to to do it, and they hope for it from no where else ; for to expect 
it from God and to look to Him for it, as the saints of old did, is 
ridiculous to them ; they have no God to whom they look for it ; (this 
is downright infidelity; and these infidels, scoffers at God's doing 



180 THE pious christian's 

righteousness, grunt and groan and feel, and then actually believe 
that they are believers!) The saints of God of old among the Jew* 
were not so ; they believed in God to do, in His power to do, in His 
love to do ; they looked to Him to do ; they believed not in the Chris- 
tian doctrine of man ; they said, " Ye have no need to fight in this bat- 
tle ; the battle is not yours but God's ; standstill and behold the salva- 
lion of God with you, O house of Judah and Jerusalem!" They did 
not mock at God and His power to do ; at His doing, His salvation, His 
Christ, as the Christians mock. And why not ? Because they did not 
laugh at the law, and think it was a lie, and that righteousness was a 
folly, and need not be done! They looked to God for righteousness, 
to be j ustified, that is, to be righteous before God by His Christ ! They 
did not say they could go to heaven by doing the best they could ; they 
did not flatly deny the Word and say, " In thy sight ice shall go to 
heaven, (that is, be justified,) by piety." They looked to God for right- 
eousness ; it was no chimera to them, because they believed, and God 
was not a chimera to them. They waited for Christ, who should come 
and dwell in them, and be the righteousness of God in them, and 
they saw Him afar off, and in Him they are now blessed, and in heaven. 
He, even this righteousness, which is a folly to the Christians, was 
their hope ! The Christians have no hope, for they hope not in God 
to do righteousness for them, by sending His son, Jesus the Christ, 
to be in them, and do it for them. They have given up all thought 
of becoming doers of righteousness, from long experience of the truth 
that all man's pretences to it is a cheat; therefore being disappointed 
in this their God and their whole hope, they have no idea of right- 
eousness at all, and believe it to be impossible, because they look not 
to God, and trust not in His Salvation. 

Not only they do not look to God for righteousness, but they deny 
altogether that IJe does it and gives it by His Christ, laughing in their 
pride to think that they should not do it, but that God does it for them 
that believe ! Their only Hope, therefore, is in man, in his power, 
ability and will, and not expecting the truth and righteousness of the 
law from this talent of lead, (knowing it is a beast they trust in, yet 
tmsting in him,) not being able to lift him up very high towards hea- 
ven, they sit down satisfied with supposing that they lift him up a little 
bit, halfway or so, by getting what they can out of him, and that they 
are quite sure is enough ; it is all that can be hoped for, and so he, 
the pious beast, will go to heaven for that ! Thus they have made a 
law, that a man may do the best he can, (that is, in fact, as much as he 
pleases,) and he shall go to heaven, he shall dwell with God forever. 
he shall have everlasting blessing and glory ! This false, lying law. 
this sham righteousness, half righteousness, doing the best they can, 
very sincerely, and going to heaven for it, they call piety, and it is in- 
stead of the law of righteousness. Thus they care not, they hope not 
for true righteousness, the righteousness of the law, and they are infi- 
dels ; for they that hope not for righteousness from God, even His right- 
eousness, that which He requires, which only is righteousness, do not 
believe in God. Without this righteousness no one can know God, 
and they that thirst not after it, do not want to know God ! 

Their hope is fear, their religion is torment, they are tormented before, 
their time. 
What they call hope is fear, not hope, as what they call life is death. 
They are afraid, the terror of guilt is upon them, they are utterly con- 
sumed with terrors, and they call their fear and terror " being pious and 
religious ;" they believe that if they are sincerely fearful and full of 



FAITH AND HOPE. 181 

fears, they are then sincerely pious. They imagine that they will es- 
cape, of course, the judgment which they fear, if they fear it. 

Thus they think that when the wicked are afraid of damnation, it is 
being pious, and then being pious, they, the wicked, will go to heaven. 
When they are sure that their just terror is sincere and true, they are 
convinced that they are true and their hope and system is true. Thus 
their religion is the fear and terror of the cursed, not the joy and glad- 
ness of the blessed, because it is to feel fear and guilt and not to do 
righteousness. Not being saved from iniquity, they do not rejoice 
in Salvation and Blessing; but being servants of unrighteousness and 
doing iniquity as men. they fear and tremble (as well they may) and 
call their fear piety and religion. As their hope and confidence is in 
their feeling condemnation and conviction for sin, the certainty of their 
hope depends upon the truth and sincerity of their feeling. They are 
doubtful (as well they may be) of the truth of their feelings, and when 
they believe they are true, they are happy, their title is clear, they 
are encouraged to hope that very probably they will go to heaver: 
when they die. They never doubt, for a moment, the lying founda- 
tion of their whole system, viz: that if the damned feel damned they 
will go to heaven : all they fear and doubt is whether they really feel 
bad enough and deeply enough, and if they do, then, they feel sure 
th ey are going to heaven. Therefore all their anxiety is to know if they 
feel truly and sincerely and deeply and sensibly : therefore all their re- 
ligious occupation is to watch and note and tell and relate and work 
up and exaggerate their feelings. Well may they suffer all this anxiety 
and torment to know if the delusion of their feelings is sincere and. 
true ; but he who by the faith of Jesus Christ doeth righteousness, re- 
quires no proof for himself or others that doing right is right and can- 
not be wrong. Thus fear and terror and the pit and iniquity and death 
and hell, the more real and true and terrible they are upon their guilty 
consciences, and the more truly they feel, that' is. suffer them, are so 
much the surer pledges and guarantees to them, of heaven and Bless- 
ing, so completely God hath turned them upside down. Thus hath 
God righteously recompensed them that forsake his law, who go after 
their own piety, and Sunday-keeping, and'what they call good, instead 
of giving heed to His commandments, to what HE calls good, and what 
HE requires, viz : to do right and righteousness to all men continually, 
whosoever they be, and to do no evil. 

To feel and suffer the death and condemnation of the law for sin, is 
glorious in their eyes, it is bliss and joy and eminent piety. They are 
shocked and displeased to see others not in the same condemnation as 
themselves, to see them laughing and merry, alive without the law, 
not yet conscious of sin n r wounded nor killed by the terrible con- 
demnation of the law c . a sword which pierces to the joints and marrow. 
They labour therefore to kill them, to make them full of fear and guilt, 
conscious of sin like themselves, and if they can do it, they think they 
have converted them. (One great Sect of them as the Lord revealed 
does not kill men, but first stings and then puffs up and happifies them, 
causing them to shout " glory, glory /" counterfeiting the joys of the 
saints ; the others kill them and require them to remain dead and 
killed, always groaning for being hell-deserving sinners.) For the 
knowledge of sin which is death, they call life, and to go down into the 
grave and the pit, slain by the wrath and terror of thelaw, feeling sin, 
is to be converted ! to be 'raised from the dead ! to be born again ! si 
literally are they turned upside down ! 

Such is their conversion ! such is their new birth ! a damnable con- 
version ! a deadly birth ! not to be turned from the error of our ways — 
not to be raised from sin and death into life and righteousness,— depart- 
16 



182 

ing from all iniquity, rejoicing evermore in righteousness and Blessing ; 
but to be condemned, to be and to feel damned, to suffer and feel wrath 
and the curse. In this death they rejoice and glory, they have made 
a covenant with hell and the grave, they call it " The glorious gospel " 
calling every thing upside down and falsely. 

They hope because they fear, they rejoice because they are tormented ; 
their religion is torment, they are tormented before their time ; for in 
due time all will fear, all will tremble, all will have convictions of sin 
and will feel, and deeply and sensibly too, that they have sinned, — 
whosoever they are that do iniquity, whether now they know the law 
or know it not, whether now they fear or fear not, whether now they 
do many things or do them not in their fear. The righteous shall 
be glad and rejoice before God, yea they shall be merry and joyful, 
but they whosoever they are who despise His Gift and Blessing and 
refuse His great Salvation shall perish in their own destructions ; for 
whosoever leceiveth Him whom God hath sent shall be blessed, but 
they that receive Him not to be righteousness unto them, shall be for 
ever as they already are, — condemned, that is damned. 

Their Hope is a delusion and a drvnkcn Excitement. 
What the True Experience is. 

They work up their feelings and then believe that they are believers, 
Now they arc greatly elated with the swelling hope and expectation 
that they are going to be saved, they are going to heaven when they 
•lie, God is going to be very good, all is going to be as they wish, and 
all because they feel that "they are sinners. Their suffering (which 
they call feeling) is the Evidence of all, it first makes them regene- 
i ate men, and then it is an Evidence that they are ! They are filled 
with joy at contemplating the Evidence and sing and mourn and re- 
act upon themselves till they feel deeper and deeper, and then are sure 
that all this accumulation of feeling is faith and hope in God. Now 
they are confident that they are going to be very happy at a future 
time, because they feel such feelings. Their joy and confidence from 
what they feel they are, and are going to be, is excitement aud drunk- 
enness, it is not Hope in God. To expect and hope great and happy 
things for ourselves, is to expect and hope great and happy things for 
msches, it is nothing more. They expect great things for them- 
selves when their feelings are worked up and excited ; it is spiritual 
drunkenness, a delusion and excitement of the vain, fleshly mind, pro- 
duced by imbibing the exciting drink of lies and false doctrine, 
puffing them up and making them believe they are something, — some- 
thing great which others are not. It is the wine of Sodom, the sweet 
wine of self flattery and self exaltation. It is whoredom, also, as well 
as drunkenness. They cover themselves with a covering of their own 
works, and paint their faces with solemn piety, and think how nice 
and pretty they have made themselves in the si^ht of God! how sweet 
and pleasing they are to Him, because they have been to Church on 
Sunday and heard a funny sermon, a long prayer, and sweet singing, and 
have felt pious, very, indeed. They think they please God, for they 
greatly please themselves ; they think they are doing wonders for God, 
that they are very winning in their pious ways, and are, no doubt, 
going to heaven when they die, if they only keep on in all this whore- 
dom and abomination, with perfect sincerity and wickedness. It is 
the deceit of Satan, a deceived heart hath turned them aside from the 
truth and sober-mindedness of the law of righteous conduct and be- 
haviour. 

There is no peace nor stability in all this drunkenness, no more than 
there is in the common drunkard. While the wine is in him he is as 



FAITH AND HOPE. 183 

happy as a king, and so are they, when their feelings are excited. It 
would be vain to tell the drunkard while revelling in his joys, that his 
joy is a delusion, and the forerunner of great sorrow. It would be a 
lie to him, for his elevation is real ; so it is utterly in vain to teach 
them, for their feelings, their elevation is real. The drunkard would 
rather die than give up his drink, and so would they, for their feelings 
make them feel so happy. 

Therefore they v.- ill no more hear and hearken to God and His Word, 
than the drunken man, while reeling to and fro, will hearken to in- 
struction. The feelings of the drunken beggar are real and genuine. 
he feels when the wine is in him as rich as a king, he feels it deeply 
and sensibly too, and he shouts for joy ; his Experience is genuine and 
undoubted," but it is nothing more than what it is, a momentary ecstacy 
and delight, real while it lasts, but founded in drunkenness. So their 
feelings of excitement, the exaltation and joy which fills them is reah 
but it is nothing more than what it is, a vain confidence and joy, it is 
not faith and trust in God. Joy, whether true or false, whether spring- 
ing from the wine of falsehood and lies, or the new wine of the kingdom. 
is not faith. The true Joy in the Lord and the Hope in God which ie- 
founded on faith in God and confidence in Him and His Word and 
Promise, (not upon Avhat man has done or has felt) is not Faith in God, 
it is what it is, viz : Joy and confidence in God, which is real, and not 
a delusion, which they have, who put their trust in Him. 

What true Experience is. It is an Experience and proof of what God 
has done, it is not a feeling of what man has felt ! They who believe, 
wait patiently upon God to do all things for them. Faith worketh this 
patience ; they endure, seeing Him who is invisible ; and He de- 
livereth them* that wait upon Him trusting to Him ; then they expe- 
rience, they prove in very deed and fact how He indeed delivereth ! 
Thus patience worketh experience, and then having now experienced 
in dangers and distresses how He truly delivereth, having found that 
it is indeed certain and sure that He delivereth all them that wait upon 
Him, — this Experience and proof of His Faithfulness (of what He does, 
not what man feels) worketh Hope. For when greater and over- 
whelming dangers and trials arise, they are not ashamed, they trust 
still, they know they were delievered by His Hand before, (that is Ex- 
perience)— and their Hope therefore is sure, they know He will deliver 
again, — so they'hope confidently in Him and wait upon Him to do, to 
save, to deliver ! This confident Hope in Him who is Mighty to save 
is founded on proof and actual Experience, and the Experience it 
after patience and patient waiting, and that waiting and patience is in 
Faith, trusting wholly to God! There is no confusion with God! 
Feeling is not Faith, Hope is not Faith, Experience is not feeling nor 
is it Faith ! Their doctrine is utter confusion, all is confounded to* 
gether, they call all things falsely, ealling their vile, filthy, blubbering 
feelings of what they feel and do, Experience. The true Experience is 
the contrary of what they call Experience, for it is the having God to 
do for us and beholding how He does ! To them, their feelings are 
Faith, aiid Hope, and Love, and Experience, and every thing,— yea 
they are God, — it is the Image of the beast the imaginary man they 
make within them, they confound all things and are confounded in aft 
things, they are as God hath said of them, The City of Confusion ! 
They call their drunkenness, the gross abominable excitement of 
their vile and filthy feelings, " the work of the Spirit, a gracious work^ 
evangelical Experience," and they faint and perish without this Excite- 
ment of their fleshly minds, as the drunkard faints for a renewal of his 
drink. It is their life, it is the feeling and experience of what they 
call the regenerate man. it is the life they have power to give to the 
image of the beast They live by their feelings, by having them 



184 

worked up and excited. It is restlessness not peace, drunkenness no* 
soberness of mind. It is pleasing themselves, not doing and keeping 
the commandments of God by the faith of Jesus Christ! 

The peace of God which passeth all understanding is peace, it is not 
excitement. It is founded on the loving kindness of God made known 
by the work of Jesus Christ, which work is righteousness, and right- 
eousness produces peace ; it comes from God. His Spirit, the Spirit 
of Christ and of God, fills His people, working mightily in them, 
whereby they worship God, whereby they call upon God, crying 
Abba, Father! It is Christ in them, saving them from all sin, being 
all righteousness in them, to them, over them, round about them, and 
upon them. It comes not from their feeling, but from God's doing, 
which they wait for and receive ! They have peace with God, for 
they are delivered from evil by the power of God; they have the 
answer of a good conscience towards God and towards all men, that 
they do no evil, for they depart from all iniquity by Him Mho dwell- 
eth in them and is with them, whom they receive to do all things for 
them, not setting up themselves, evil, fleshy man, a beast, to pretend to 
do what he will not do, instead of Him who does it. They do no 
iniquity, they walk in the law of the Lord, in the very righteousness 
of God; there is no condemnation to them, for they are in Christ 
Jesus, and Jesus Christ is in them, He is come in the flesh, in His people, 
in His own body ! and they have peace with God, for the Spirit of the 
Son of God is in them, the Spirit of truth, righteousness, love, quiet- 
ness and soundness of mind, the Spirit which loveth righteousness 
and keepelh the commandments of God! He that doeth evil hath 
no peace with God, nor with himself; he is tormented and has no rest. 
w There is no peace, saith my God, to the icicked^ their feelings are 
m ; re and filth. 

The foundation of their Hope is in themselves, not in God; their faith 
and their Hope is a dream and dreaming. 

They have no other ground of 1 1 ope than this, viz. that they have felt ! 
they have had an experience. All is subordinate to this. They oppose 
the truth, they submit not to it, for it is hateful to them, but they feel 
and experience religion, and so they are believers, without believing or 
receiving the truth, and are, as they hope and trust, going to heaven, 
while they fight against Mount Zion, the truth and doctrine of the 
living God. They are confident that if they feel or experience religion, 
as they call their feelings, they believe, they are believers and children 
of God ; to doubt it is unbelief. Thus their faith is to believe that they 
are children of God, and believers. Thus to believe in themselves 
that they believe, and are children of God, is to believe in God, and to 
doubt this of themselves is unbelief, it is a doubt of God ! They have 
thus set up themselves, (their imaginary good selves, that is, theimage 
of the beast) instead of God and His Christ, they substitute them- 
selves for God ; for if they believe of themselves that they believe, it is 
faith in God, and if they doubt this of themselves, it is doubt of God, 

Their hope is founded on the belief that they are children of God, 
and believers. They may really believe it, but when the belief is evei 
ho real, it is not belief in God. To believe, however firmly, that we 
are children of God, is not to believe in God ; it is only to believe some- 
thing of ourselves, viz., that we are children of God. It/is true we are 
all his offspring, and it is true that they that hearken to His voice are 
His inheritance, His chosen, His beloved children in Christ, His beloved 
Son, but it is no blessing to believe of ourselves that we are His chil- 
dren, whether it be so or not: the blessing is to believe in Him, not in 
ourselves, nor in anything concerning ourselves. The blessing is to 
have entered, by faith, into God's righteousness, to have God with us, 
in Christ, His Son, blessing us, filling us with light and truth, and all 



FAITH AND HOPE. 185 

His fullness, goodness and loA*e. The blessing is to be saved from being 
sinners under the lav/, for we are cursed while sinners under the lav.', 
whether we are His children or not; as Christ himself w as, while under 
the law, being made under it, a curse for us, in order to redeem us. 
To believe of ourselves that we' are believers and children of God, is 
not to be righteous before God, and blessed; it is not to be obedient 
children, doing the will of God. If the son of a king believed that he 
was the son of the king, that would not be honour and obedience to 
his father, and it would not be enjoying the favour and approbation of 
his father, because of obedience and right conduct. He might be a 
very miserable son, without doubting that he was a son ; so we may 
be very miserable children of God, while we believe that we are His 
children ! We must inevitably be miserable children, while we do in- 
iquity, for then we must be under the law, and separated from God! 
When Christ bore our iniquities, (being made one with us under the 
law. that we might be made one with him in righteousness,) he was a 
Son, but a very miserable Son, suffering under the law for our sins and 
our sakes, separated by the law from God, forsaken of God, crying out, 
u My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me!" The Prodigal Son, 
while he was feeding swine, did not doubt that he was the child of his 
father ; but that was not blessing and food to him in his distress. He 
received the blessing when he received forgiveness, when he arose and 
went to his father and said, •* Father, I have sinned in thy sight, and 
am no more worthy to be called thy soti /" and then his father met him 
and forgave him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and gave him 
food and clothing and blessed him. So the children, the Israel of God, 
the outcast, the banished, the prodigal, the wretched, the cursed, 

in enmity, in sin, in rebellion, perverse, foolish, obstinate, God 

loveth them, they shall hear his voice, He will turn them and they 

shall be turned, for He hath mercy upon them they can only be 

blessed when they turn to God, when God giveih them repentance, 
and turneth them away from their iniquities by Him, His Christ, His 
Son Jesus, whom he hath exalted a Prince and a Saviour to give repen- 
tance unto Israel, and remission of sins. Then will they turn to Him, 
against whom they have grievously revolted ; then the hearts of the 
children shall be turned to the lather, and the heart of the father to 
the children ! 

Therefore it is no faith in God to believe that we believe, however 
confidently we may believe it. It is not faith in God to believe any- 
thing about ourselves, it is only faith in ourselves. Faith in God is 
when they who are aud were children of God before the foundation of 
the world", receive the life and blessing, even righteousness from God, 
and entering into Christ, receive Him, the salvation of God, and become 
righteous, obedient and blessed children in Him. But with the pious 
Christians, to feel is to believe, and to believe is to feel! If they feel, 
then they are believers. And what is it they believe ? They believe 
that they are believers, that they are children of God! that they have 
something and are something, viz., that they have an experience, and 
are wonderful believers ! This, with them, is to believe, and to doubt 
this is unbelief. It is dreaming ! they think, they trust, they dream, 
that they are believers, and children of God, going to heaven ; and 
why? Because they feel, because they have an Experience; then, 
elated at this great persuasion of what they are, produced by what 
they feel, they say " they are encouraged to hope /" 

It is to believe a lie, to believe that we believe, and it is to try to 

believe a lie, to try to believe that we believe. He that believes is not 

man, it is Christ, even the member and branch of Christ, who is one 

spirit with Christ, and he refers all to Christ, the Head of the Church, 

16* 



186 THE pious christian's 

of all His people, the Life in them that believe, that is who live. He 
therefore that believes, will not say of himself, " / live, I believe," he 
will say, " Not 1, but Christ liveth in me." He who doeth righteous- 
ness, confesses it is Christ who does it; he who says he doeth right- 
eousness is a liar, and the truth is not in him; he denies God! He 
who testifies of himself that he is something, that he believes, that he 
lives, that he speaketh the truth, is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 
for it is not in man ; but he who believeth, who speaketh the truth, he 
testifies of Christ, not of man, that it is He who dwelleth in him, and 
speaketh and doeth truth and righteousness, it is not us men; God 
forbid ! 

When we believe in Him whom God hath sent, we receive Him 
to be in us, the truth in the inward parts, we eat and drink the flesh 
and blood of the Lamb of God, the true Passover, we are partakers of 
the Sacrifice. To believe in Him, is to have and receive Him ; it is 
not to think, that is, to dream that we have Him. It is to eat the 
bread of life, which God giveth, to drink the water of life, which He 
sendeth, to have Him the Son of God, dwelling in us ; as it is written, 
"He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God- 
hath not life." It is receiving Him to do all righteousness in us and 
for us, actually saving us from wicked works and evil doings ; it is not 
believing or trying to believe that we are saved from them, while we 
are not. To believe in Him is to have this Salvation ; it is not to think or 
believe, or to be persuaded that we have it ! To believe that we believe 
and are believers, is dreaming ; it is to believe that we eat and drink, 
but it is not to eat and drink ! Believing that we believe, is no more 
believing, than to believe that we eat and drink is eating and drinking ! 

The faith and hope of the pious Christians is a dream! They 
believe that they believe, they persuade themselves that because of 
their feelings they are children of God, they are believers ! A man 
might as well believe he was a believer, because he felt the gout or 
the rheumatism, or some other bad disorder deeply and sensibly, 
as to believe he was a believer because he felt sin, the worst of all 
disorders, deeply and sensibly. They believe they are believers on 
the most foolish pretences. They think, they dream, that they are 
children of God ; they dream they are eating and drinking, while 
they are empty, and have nothing, and perish of hunger. They 
rejoice and are glad, not because they are saved from evil-doing, and 
have the real life and blessing, eating the Passover, but because they 
believe they are believers ; they dream they have life, they dream they 
eat, while they are empty, and in death and cursing. They think it is 
all real, because the dream is so pleasing and so real, and the feeling, 
while it lasts, is so ravishing. Then they awake and find that they are 
famished, that they have nothing, that they are servants of the deviL, 
and led captive by their sins, and that it was all a dream ! then they 
are destitute, they are faint, and their souls have appetite ; they are 
wretched and miserable. Then their feelings are worked up again; 
their preachers persuade them to believe that all this agony and death 
is a sure evidence that they are children of God, they must not doubt 
it ! and this they call Gospel comfort ! Then, after listening greedily to 
such deceptions and lies, they dream again, and believe again that 
they believe and are believers, and so they spend their lives in dream- 
ing. They are sure of it, it must be so, that they arc believers, and 
children of God ; how can it be otherwise, when they have had such 
feelings. Oh I such feelings ! it would be madness to doubt, after such 
feelings, that they were really believers ; to doubt this of themselves 
would be unbelief, even doubting God ; therefore, for fear of doubting 
God, they doubt not themselves, but believe in themselves and in their 
feelings. 



FAITH AND HOPE. 18V 

In all this folly and wickedness and filthy dreaming, the only ques- 
tion with them is, "Do they indeed feel deeply and sensibly? Have 
they felt the genuine feelings ? They never for a moment think of 
questioning their damnable delusion and wicked religion, viz., that 
feelings make children of God ; that feelings are faith ; that if you have 
them it is all right ; that mercy, justice and judgment, truth and right- 
eousness, are out of the question; that the feeling man and his feelings 
are everything. It never enters, for a moment, into their minds to ques- 
tion this damnable delusion and wicked doctrine, even the whole sub- 
stance and foundation of their damnable religion ; (damnable, that is, 
because it brings them into damnation ;) they never think of doubting 
or inquiring for a moment, whether it be true that the feeling, the 
Image of the beast, can save ? No, their only doubt and question is- 
have they got the feeling? have they made the Image of the beast? do 
they feel deeply and sensibly ? If it is so, if they have felt the Expe- 
rience, and so made a real, undoubted, genuine image of the beast, a 
sham good new man inside of them, it is all.right ; there can be no 
question, no doubt whatever of the power to save, and the saving 
power of the Image of the beast. The power of the God they make is? 
not to be questioned ; it cannot be doubted ; the only question is, 
have they got him ? have they made and set him up ? have they felt deeply 
and sensibly ? so that they, the wicked, are substantially turned into nice^ 
new, good, pious, regenerate men ! 

Such is the foundation of their hope and joy, and going to heaven. 
Righteousness from God, even Jesus Christ received to be and to do 
it, is out of the question. They dream that they believe, that they 
eat and drink, while they perish and have no food, and are 
destroyed by the devil, led captive by their sins. They think, 
and trust, and hope, that they believe ; that is, that they have life 
while they are in death and cursing. (To such an excess of delusion 
has Satan brought them, that they take the death and cursing as a. 
proof of the life and blessing ; and if they feel it deeply (which ought 
to awaken them from their dream) they use it to encourage them- 
selves in dreaming ; and the more terribly they feel the death and 
cursing because of sin, the more they dream, and say it is a sure 
proof that they have life, thai* they are filled with the heavenly bless- 
ing—that is, that they believe !) 

This is the reward which God giveth to the pious multitude of the 
nations, the sects of religion of this day who resist and fight against Hie* 
holy truth and doctrine, Mount Zion ; even His Word and Right- 
eousness, His Love, Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent to save by 
doing righteousness, them that receive Him ! Thus hath God de- 
scribed, speaking in His servant, how they dream, even how they 
believe that they believe, saying, u And the multitude of all the na- 
tions that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her 
munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night-vision. 
It shall even be as when a hungry man dreameth, and behold he eateth ; 
but he awaketh, and his soul is empty : or as when a thirsty man 
dreameth, and behold, he drinketh ; but he awaketh, and behold, he is 
faint, and his soul hath appetite : so shall the multitude of all the na- 
tions be, that fight against mount Zion" 

They spend their days and years in working themselves up to be- 
lieve that they are believers, in dreaming that they are eating and are 
filled, while they are empty, and are not saved but do iniquity. They 
run to and fro, from preacher to preacher, to be built up in this dream 
and lie ; to get comfort, not from God, but from feasting upon their 
sensations and feelings ; to be told that their death and condemnation, 
their sin, their torment and guilt, is a proof and an evidence of a gra- 



188 the pious christian's 

cious work upon their hearts, that they are believers, that they are 
children of God. They hear and are told that if they have an expe- 
rience,if they are filled with the bitterness of death, if they suffer, (or feel 
as they speak,) the curse and plague and condemnation of sin, it is the 
work of the Spirit, they are born again, they are children of God, they 
have the evidence, they have experienced religion, they must not 
doubt it ! Thus the wine of Sodom, puffed up self-conceit and self- 
flattery, the bitterness of death, the bread of ashes, the curse of sin, 
dreaming that they eat, believing that they are believers, is repre- 
sented to them as having the bread of life, as faith, as real eating and 
drinking honey and wine ! And they are confident that they are be- 
lievers, that the dream that they eat is real eating, and the belief that 
they believe is real believing. All their labour and anxiety, therefore, 
is, not to believe in God, tohave the Son even Life and Righteousness, 
by His doing— not to be delivered from doing iniquity, — not to fulfil 
the righteousness of the law and do the will of God— not to know 
God— no ! but to feel and believe that they are something, and that 
they are going to be something wonderful— to dream that they 
are believers ! And if, by working up and contemplating their feel- 
ings, they can believe the lie, that they who hate their brother and do 
evil to their neighbour, backbiting with their tongue, and walking as 
men, are believers and children of the Most High, then they rejoice 
in their dreaming and have a sweet season, a happy experience, and 
they proudly feel in all their wicked doings and damnation, how won- 
derfully they believe ! what wonderful faith they have ! that all this 
is faith, and* that they, with all the malice, deceit and wickedness of 
man and the. devil, burning and raging in them, are going to heaven I 
They blind their eyes and harden their hearts against all truth and all 
instruction, by setting down in their experience every just doubt and 
warning given of their deceitful system, as a sore trial and tempta- 
tion to unbelief. 

These are they, the pious multitude, who, deceitfully, under the dis- 
guise of Piety and Religion, fight against Mount Zion, against God's 
salvation, against the doctrine of Christ, viz : that Jesus is the Christ 
indeed, the Righteousness of God indeed, the Saviour who truly 
saves His people from all their sins, being received by them to be in 
them, doing the will of God for them, doing all righteousness for 
them. He doing and being it all in them, they believing, doing 
nothing, having nothing to do ; receiving everything from God in 
Christ, standing still, having Rest in Him, beholding the Salvation, 
the Glory of God ! Against this, the holy, blessed, everlasting dec- 
trine of God, against His Christ, they rage, — yea, the wicked, the hell- 
deserving, will do something in order to go to heaven ! 

Their Hope in piety is vain. Piety, instead of leading to heaven, only 
makes men more wicked and miserable, adding to the natural misery 
of mankind. JYo pious man can go to heaven I 

They hope and trust they will go to heaven if they are truly pious, 
It is a'vain and idle hope, for if men were very pious and did a great 
deal, they could not go to heaven. If they* did much more than 
piety, much more than going regularly to church on Sunday, if they 
did all the good deeds of the Law, they would not be without sin, 
and righteous before God ! For even by doing all the good deeds of 
the law shall no flesh living be justified in the sight of God: much 
less can any one stand in the presence of God clothed in piety ! Those 
only who are without spot and blemish can stand without fear before 
Him in righteousness and love. None but those who have God's 
righteousness can have access into His grace and presence ; and the 



FAITH AND HOPE. 189 

righteousness of God cannot be joined and mixed up with piety or 
with anything coming- from man. The garment of righteousness in 
which they are clothed who appear before God and live in His pre- 
sence, mast not be spotted with the flesh, with the least touch from 
the finger of man. MAN MUST POSITIVELY HAVE NOTHING 
TO DO IN THE RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS GOD'S RIGHT- 
EOUSNESS, IN WHICH ALONE IS HEAVENLY LIFE AND 
BLESSING! 

They refuse to receive righteousness from God. They refuse to 
receive the Lord Jesus Christ to do all things for us, we doing no- 
thing. Therefore, refusing God's righteousness, they can have none 
at all ; for man's righteousness or piety, the things done by man, even 
when they are good for man and for the earth, are good for nothing 
before God in Heaven. Therefore they hope to go to heaven without 
righteousness, hoping to go there if they are pious. Heaven with 
their righteousness would be hell, for the earth and all places in 
which they exhibit and practise it, is a scene of wickedness, misery, 
contention and strife, which makes one shudder. Their piety is not 
good even for the earth ; how then will it be good for heaven ? 

It would do no good, therefore, to those who have not the right- 
eousness of God filling and covering them, to go to heaven or to any 
other place, either while they live or when they die. Their hope, 
therefore, which is built upon their piety, is useless, and it would do 
them no good if they could obtain [it and go to heaven. Without the 
righteousness of God the whole earth is cursed ; without it heaven itself 
would be a place of cursing. The earth and the inhabitants thereof 
are only blessed and have any peace and quietness, in proportion as 
men have wisdom and prudence from God to do even a little imper- 
fect earthly honesty or righteousness towards each o her, and in pro- 
portion as God in his mercy to men, notwithstanding their folly, checks 
and restrains them, and suffers not their wickedness to prevail, and 
leaves them not to have their own way. But heaven would be a 
place of darkness and misery to him who was without the righteous- 
ness of God, in whom the evil man of the earth, his evil mind, was 
not destroyed, and he cleansed from all unrighteousness. Though 
full of light, man, who is darkness, would not comprehend it nor see 
it, and if grace was given to him yet would he not learn righteousness 
nor behold the majesty of the Lord. They who are not circumcised 
with Christ, putting off the man of sin, made partakers of Him by 
faith, and righteous in Him, are enemies of God, they are men, the 
flesh, and wherever tbey are, with all their wisdom, and knowledge, 
and virtue, and inlellect, and religion, and philosophy, and piety, 
there is confusion, wrath, strife, emulations, envyings. misunderstand- 
ings, fears, suspicions, black looks, revenge, bitterness, lust, back- 
bitings, disagreements, scoldings, jealousies, evil-surmisings, quar- 
rellings These things are the works of man, even of the flesh, and of 
the devil, of the Adversary working in man ! Where men are, these 
works are there, and Christ is not there, righteousness, blessing and 
peace is not there, but death, sorrow and condemnation is there, by 
the law which burns up and destroys all them that do these things. 

Such is man ! he is sin, because he commits sin, and does not believe 
in God who is righteousness ! he does not desire righteousness, even 
God, to be his God! he is without God. He is enmity, he would not 
have God to be his God, to do all things for him, he to do nothing, he 
not to be god — no ! 7iot for the world ! He must do something, he knows 
it well, and he sticks to that, and refuses to receive righteousness from 
God ! such is his wretched condition ! without God ! having to do 
righteousness, but not doing it ; that is the curse ! and hating to receive 
God to do it, saving him from all sin, that is the enmity! 



190 the pious christian's 

Piety does not better his miserable condition, nor make him right- 
eous and blessed, on the contrary, it only makes it worse, adding more 
misery, austerity, pride, fear and superstitious terror to his natural 
wretchedness and misery, tormenting, biting, threatening accusing^ 
stinging, punishing him with every kind of self-punishment, and tor- 
lure, curtailing him of innocent enjoyments, deceiving him cruelly, 
making him believe that, perhaps if he perseveres in all its demoniacal 
austerities and exhibitions, that he, wicked man, will possibly and 
perchance go to heaven ! for it is all an uncertainty, after all the miserable 
and cursed life he has been made to lead ! But this beast will never go 
there. They among men who believe, who are redeemed from the 
earth, from sin and death and unrighteousness, are the Israel of God, 
the members of Christ, they enter into Him, and believing in Him, they 
are joined with Him, they are made one with Him, they put off this 
beast, this man who committeth sin, the mind of the flesh, the corrupt 
man, they put him off with Christ who has put him to death, and put 
him away for us, and they put on Christ, they are one with Him and 
in Him, having His mind, and they are blessed ! They, the redeemed 
of the Lord, the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, in Christ, 
His Son, — they, even they that believe, will ascend into heaven, for 
they are the Anointed of God, one with His Anointed, Jesus the Christ. 
u JVo man hath ascended up into heaven, hut He that came down from 
heaven, even the son of man, {the Lord of Glory, and His members in 
Him,) who is in heaven." 

Thus he who goes to heaven is the man in Christ Jesus, it is not man, 
and it is not man with an adjective, it is not the pious man, it is no 
man of the earth whatever! It is Christ! We leave that evil man and 
enter into Christ, and we are one righteous man, sons of God, in 
Him! 

They who will have something to do, can never go to heaven. If they 
were to go there, they could neither be saved nor blessed. 

They who will do something themselves, in order to be saved, 
reject the righteousness of God, and will not receive Christ to bless 
them by righteousness, doing it all for them. They cannot therefore be 
saved, it is impossible, for they are not spotless in righteousness, even 
in Christ ! they have to do, all is not done for them ! They refuse to 
be righteous, they refuse the Salvation of God, Jesus the Son of God, 
the Christ whom He hath sent, they will not have God to be their God, 
they cannot possibly be blessed, that is saved ! 

Not only they cannot be saved, they cannot go to heaven, but even if 
they were in heaven, it w T ould be of no use to them, they could not be 
saved, they could not be blessed. For if they went to heaven, they would 
still have something to do, they would have righteousness to do, for 
certainly wickedness could not be done there ! They would therefore 
still have righteousness to do themselves, for they could not receive it in 
heaven, for they say it is wicked to receive it, that is, to believe, and not 
to have it to do ourselves ! it is wicked, they say, to have God by His 
Christ, doing it all for us ! But that which is wicked here on earth, is 
wicked every where, and in every other place, and that which is wicked 
to day, will be wicked to morrow, and for ever and ever ! (Wickedness 
changes not, it is man, and good changes not, it is God !) Therefore 
they could not receive the doctrine of God in heaven, which they refuse 
to receive on the earth, for it would be as wicked there, as they say it 
is here. Therefore if they went to heaven, they would still have to do 
righteousness, for that is the only something to do, on earth or in hea- 
ven. But to have to do righteousness ourselves, is to be under the 
law. Therefore they would be under the law, if they were in heaven. 



FAITH AND HOPE, 191 

But how would they fulfil all its righteousness to-morrow in heaven, 
who do not fulfil it to-day, here, upon the earth ? It is impossible ! It 
would not be fulfilled by them there, any more than it is here ! And 
how could they obtain it there ? Their labour there, would be as vain 
as it is here, and they could not receive it from God, the Gift of His 
Grace and Glory, they doing nothing for it ! certainly not ! they never 
could receive it in all eternity, for it would be as wicked, monstrous 
and absurd for God ever to be so good, so liberal and gracious, in all 
eternity, as they proudly and wickedly say, that it is for Him to be so 
good to-day, here upon earth ! It would be as laughable and foolish to 
receive it then for nothing, the mere gift of God, having nothing to do, 
receiving all from God for nothing, as they proudly say it is now ! They 
would therefore still have something to do, that is, they would be 
under the law, as much as they are here. But where there is the law 
of a work for man to do, there is transgression and sin, for man doeth 
it not ; therefore there would be transgression and sin in heaven, if they 
went there. But it is certain, there is no transgression to condemn, nor 
sin to reprove in the presence of God in heaven, therefore it is certain, 
that they, who still have something to do, a law to fulfil, can never be 
there ! 

If there was a law in heaven, and conditions, and things to be done 
and not to be done for them who are there, it would be no heaven, for 
there would be righteousness to be done there, and to be got and to 
be toiled for, there. But this is God and His Christ only, righteousness 
is only in and by Him, it is not in man nor in any creature ; God there- 
fore, and Christ, would not be there where perfect righteousness was 
not already there, but where it was still to be done and a law, forbid- 
ding evil ; for then there would be evil in heaven, if they were there ! 
Righteousness would not be done there anymore than here, among men 
on the earth, by them in whom God dwelled not, being it, and doing 
it, and giving it, and filling them, and all the heavenly host around 
Him, with it. Therefore they, who despise this great Salvation, must 
make up their minds, never to be blessed, for it is impossible to be 
blessed without righteousness ! and they will not have it ! they cannot 
be blessed on earth, they could not be blessed in heaven if they went 
there, for they refuse Blessing, — even Christ. Wherever they go, the 
curse will follow them, for the law is certain and true ; wherever there 
is not righteousness, that is, no sin, there is the law and there is the 
curse ! 

There is evil where the law is, for it forbids and avenges evil. There 
is something wrong, wherever it is, and therefore it is necessary to 
declare God's hatred of wrong. Yea, verily there is evil, dreadful, ex- 
cessive evil, where the law is, even here on the earth, among men, to 
whom it is given to correct, reprove, restrain and humble and teach 
them, punishing inevitably the evil doer, and making his own wicked- 
ness come down upon his own head. But where God is, in His Christ, 
there is righteousness, there is no evil, there is no law, for there is no 
transgression ! There is not righteousness to be done, and evil which 
must not be done, for God is there, manifest in His Son Jesus Christ, 
seen in Him, the express image of His person. And the Son of God, 
and all the sons of God in Him, are a holy habitation of God, filled 
with His fullness, with His Grace and truth and love unfeigned. The 
evil man Adam, who is without God, and hateth God, who is under 
the law, because of sin, is not there and can never have access there. 
No pious man who will do, and will not receive Christ to do, none but 
those who long after Christ, and enter into Him, the righteousness of 
God, can ever have access there ! Where man is with his doings, sin is 
there, and the law is there, because of sin. They that are in Christ, 



192 THE PIOUS christian's 

have put off with Him. in His death, the sinful flesh, the old man, whom 
Christ has put to death in his own body, on the tree, and they are 
raised from the dead, together with Him, in the spirit, a glorious, holy 
body, and are one with Him, the new man from heaven, a holy Temple 
of God! There is no disobedience, no enintty there, no fear and no 
condemnation. There is no saying, " Thou shalt not hate, thou shalt 
not murder," among those who, beholding the glory of Cod in the face 
of Jesus Christ, are filled with Love, even with Cod, and know not 
sin, being without sin in them, made the righteousness of God in Him, 
His righteousness. They look into Him and are lightened and are 
filled with light and truth in Him. They look unto Him and are filled. 
with all his fullness. It is only the corrupt and wicked man, who looks 
to himself and not to God ! 

Their horrid Condition! 

Such is their hope, such is their system ; they are not condemned, 
but are only perhaps going to be ; they are not blessed, but are only 
perhaps going to be when they die, provided they become pious, and 
do a little good. They are not good, and do not their little good, but 
it is all going to be! They are not saved from iniquity, lust, wrath, 
hatred, covetousness, maiice, uncleanness, but they are going to 
be saved when it suits them, and they are not damned for these 
damnable things, but they are only perhaps going to be, if it should 
not suit them to become sincerely pious, and go to heaven. It is a 
system of utter confusion and wickedness. They have confounded 
every thing, and are turned upside down in every thing. They are set 
on fire, and are in flames, and they know it not; they are dead, and 
do the works of the dead, and think they are alive towards God; they 
live in wrath, bitterness and contention, condemning and condemned, 
hating, backbiting, devouring one another; they have no peace, living 
in malice, clamour, strife, emulation, scolding, accusal ion, burning in 
their lust after money, honour, respectability, and the glory of this 
world — yet in all this hell, and horrid suffering and death, (which they 
conceal, more or less, from the world, and are unconscious of them- 
selves) — they are pious, and go to church on Sundays, and have occa- 
sional fits of great devotion, and so are very good Christians ; the little 
things they do, now and then, is believing, and they would be aston- 
ished to suppose that what they read about believing, does not apply 
to them. They who are guilty of the astonishing insolence of think- 
ing that by doing a few little things they are believers in God, think 
it is astonishing insolence towards them to suppose they are not 
believers for the silly things they do. Thus living among each other 
in utter condemnation, bitterness and heart-burnings, without peace, 
in restless torment, anxiety and fear, thoroughly condemned, tiiat is 
damned, in their hearts and inmost souls and consciences, in their 
homes and houses, in their secret chambers, pouring out the condem- 
nation and bitterness of their hearts upon all around them, dwelling 
in all enmity, hatred, envy, suspicion, emulation, jealousies, anguish 
and misery — so thoroughly damned by the fiery curse of the law, which 
they despise, that in their horror and anguish they are ready to destroy • 
themselves, and are, every now and then, drowning, shooting, hang- 
ing themselves and cutting their throats, forsaken of God, whom they 
have forsaken, whose love, by Jesus Christ, they laugh at and despise, 
yet in this horrid condition of utter death, misery, cursing and anguish, 
by the fire of the law, because of iniquity and pride, they are not con- 
demned, they, the damned, are not damned, but are only, perhaps, 
going to be at some future time, hereafter, if they do not become more 
eminently pious. In all this horrid condition, they talk proudly and 



FAITH AND HOPEo 193 

haughtily of going to heaven, of what they feel and what they know, 
and they hope and trust that God is going to be very good and mer- 
ciful to them when they die, them, who deny His goodness and mercy 
while they live ! There is no God to them now ; He is not, but He is 
going to be, and they who hate and despise His Word now, are going 
to live with Him in blessing when they die ; when their fear cometh 
as a desolation, and they who mock at the truth now, who will not 
receive Christ to save them now, will find that there is such a thing as 
justice and vengeance, and that God, at whose word they mock now, 
will also mock at their calamity when it comes upon them, because they 
hated instruction, and cast His words behind them, prefering to listen 
to the regenerate man and their own delusions and feelings, rather 
than to God and His Law ! (If they doubt the power of God to take 
vengeance on the people who despise His Christ, His righteousness, 
let them look at the Jews.) 

Thus there is no God to obey now, there is no deliverance from evil 
works and cursing now, there is no righteousness and blessing now, 
there is no condemnation, death and hell now, while they are plunged 
therein to the full, but it is all going to be hereafter, when they die. 
Therefore in their pride, ignorant of their true situation, blind, puffed 
up, deceiving and deceived, they do not seek after deliverance and 
blessing, even righteousness, now, while here on the earth, to do the 
will of God towards all men, to be blessed by righteousness. No; 
and why should they ? when they are going, in spite of the law which 
is over them, to have all when they die ? They believe not the truth 
of the Law, that they will be judged for all the deeds done in the body, 
therefore they seek not for deliverance from evil deeds while in the 
body. Besides, what has the Law to do with them, who have made 
an Image to the beast, a righteous man without righteousness ; them, 
who are regenerate men, and feel deeply and sensibly that they are 
great and terrible sinners ! Thus they live all their lives in lies and 
self-deception, become hardened in them, rejoice in them, and die in 
them, uttering their delusions as they die, deceived to the last and 
deceiving, promising liberty to others, while they themselves are the 
servants of corruption, promising salvation to others, while they are 
steeped in iniquity and condemnation ! 

Such is the system, the horrid, wicked system, of the Christianity of 
this time of wickedness and abomination ! All is going to be, nothing 
is ; therefore they encourage themselves in an evil way, and do evil 
without fear, and hope that in spite of all, they are going to be saved. 
All manner of sin and wickedness belongs to this system, for it signi- 
fies not what men do to their neighbours, provided they take the name 
and mark of the beast, and go to church on Sundays, and take care not 
to violate the law of human respectability, keeping clear of the re- 
proach of men, and of the penitentiary. For they are going to heaven 
whenever they please, and to do good, and lift themselves up to the 
throne of God, by doing something, if they choose to do it. Therefore 
they fear not God, and do as they please, and believe what they please, 
and as much as they please, doing all manner of evil in secret and yet 
they do not intend to suffer for it at all, no — not they ; for they are 
piously disposed, and are going to be truly and sincerely pious. With 
such pious feelings, it cannot be otherwise but that they who do iniquity 
will, as they are encouraged to hope, go to heaven when they die ! 

The Cause of all. They are a Warning from God. 

All this confusion, folly and wickedness in the City of Confusion 
anu Deceit, of the worshippers of the beast and his image, comes 
from this, and is the righteous judgment of God in giving them up to 



194 THE pious christian's 

their own ways and wisdom— because they have trusted in themselves, 
and set up and exalted themselves above God — because they have 
trusted in themselves to lift themselves up to heaven, and to stand in 
the presence of God in piety — because they have refused the good and 
true righteousness, which He gives, and have set up their own, which 
is good for nothing ; because they have trusted in man, in his wisdom, 
works, feelings and intellectual faculties, in his sweet and pious looks, 
sayings and doings, in his pretended change and transmutation ; because 
they have hoped in this evil beast, that is, in themselves, not in God ; — 
because they have despised God's doing righteousness, by His Christ, 
insisting upon their own deeds and offerings instead of the true burnt 
offering, the Lamb of God ;— because they have killed and slain the law 
and the Gospel of God, the two witnesses of righteousness, and set up 
the law of Piety instead, exalting their own wisdom and righteousness ! 
Therefore God has let them alone to follow their own ways. He has 
kept silence till now; and it has ended in all this. confusion, wicked- 
ness and abomination, which passe th conception and knowledge! 
These things, were they not visible, glaring, manifest, in all their deeds 
and doctrines of crime ; and if they had not been fully revealed and 
foretold by the Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles and Prophets before 
they came to pass, would be utterly incredible. The wickedness of 
man, until our eyes are opened to see it, is incredible. 

By their conduct and doctrines, they remain and abide forever an 

EVERLASTING AND INDELIBLE RECORD of What SOl't Of Wisdom and 

goodness it is which is to be expected, and which comes forth from 
man, even in his best estate, even when he is most eminently pious 1 
So that all they who are of God, w T ho hearken to His voice, may take 
warning by this lesson of ages, this exhibition of piety, which God 
has suffered them, in perfect freedom and leisure to make, and hence- 
forth put their trust in God only, and receive wisdom, righteousness 
and preservation from sin and folly by Him, by His Son, Jesus Christ, 
whom He hath sent to save and bless His people, not looking any 
more to man nor to themselves, nor to any shape, name, nor form of 
themselves, nor to any lies of man for wisdom and righteousness, not 
worshipping a beast, but worshipping God — looking only to Him, as 
obedient children, members of His beloved, receiving all from Him, 
in His Son, Jesus Christ ! Blessed, yea, blessed are all they that put 
Heir trust in Him, for they are the Sons, the beloved of God ! 



CHAPTER XVI I. 

A FULL REVELATION OF ALL THE ABOVE THINGS SPOKEN OF DC 
THE PRECEDING PAGES, MADE BY THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 
AGES BEFORE THESE THINGS CAME TO PASS. 

All these things which have come to pass, were before revealed of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, that they should come to pass. This apostacy, 
this building up, on the very letter of truth and righteousness, a system 
of deceit and falsehood, overthrowing all truth and righteousness, this 
establishment on the earth of an earthly, proud, covetous dominion 
and power of men, calling itself the Church of Christ, ruling over men 
with violence and cruelty, pretending to teach heavenly truth, and to 
have heavenly authority for earthly violence and wickedness, this 
deceit, calling the corporation and system of vain, evil men, the tru« 



FAITH AND HOPE. 195 

Church of God, and the abominable, doctrines and philosophical teach- 
ings of evil men, the very truth and teaching of God, genuine Chris- 
tianity and the Christian religion ;— This long desolation of the 
Church of Christ, the city and people of the Lord, who have been over- 
come by such a frightful and atrocious abomination — this trampling 
under foot of the truth— and now at last, in this day, the manifest 
consummation and perfection of madness, folly and crime, under the 
name of piety and evangelical religion— the awful overspreading of 
iniquity— the reign and exaltation of Satan among men under the 
crouching disguise and mask of wonderful piety and religion— all 
this, which has come to pass, has come to pass according to the wise 
counsel and will of God. 

God has long before revealed and foretold the whole of it. These 
things which wicked men, left to follow their own pious ways j.nd 
earthly wisdom, have done, are as much His will and purpose, as it 
was also His will and purpose, for the glory of His name and the sal- 
vation of his people, to suffer the wickedness of man to prevail on a 
former similar day, under the very same show of solemn, awful piety, 
to such an extent as to take the Holy One, the meek and righteous 
man from Heaven, to spit upon Him, revile, abuse and smite Him, and 
hang Him on a tree! It is, in this day, the very same deed, enacted 
over again, by the very same generation which is now on the earth, 
and not passed away, the strict Pharisees, the Pious Christians of this 
day, wiiose atrocious and blasphemous doctrines and deceit are 
revealed and laid open in this book. This day of the consummation 
of abomination and desolation, in which the truth of God, the doctrine 
of Christ, is utterly cast down and slain, by those who call, and con- 
sider themselves eminently pious and evangelical Christians, has been 
even as fully revealed and foretold as the coming and suffering of the 
Lord Jesus Christ was. All the Prophets, yea, and Enoch, the seventh 
from Adam, have spoken and prophesied of this day, and of this gen- 
eration of Pious Christians, the Antichrist, the Adversary, the reviler 
of God and His Christ, exalters of themselves, despisers of His holy 
truth and doctrine, haters of His name, the Lord our righteous- 
ness, even the Lord who doeth righteousness for PI is people! The 
Lord Jesus Christ has plainly and minutely revealed the whole in an 
unbroken chain of revelations, in the book called u The Revelation of 
Jesus Christ" 

Of the Two Beasts, the Two Religious Powers and Dominions of Men 
which have ruled and reigned on the Earth for 42 months, that is, 
1260 years past, constituting the two different Doctrines and Systems, 
called Christianity and The Christian Religion. 
The Lord Jesus Christ has given a history of these two Beasts in the 
13th chapter of His Revelations ; He has also described them by His 
servant Daniel. All Christendom, that is all the nations and people 
professing Christianity have been comprised for ages past under two 
great bodies, forming two distinct religious authorities and earthly 
Powers established on different principles and opposed to each other. 
All Christians of all kinds and of all nations have been arrayed under 
one or the other of these two principles and doctrines, and have be- 
longed to one or other of them. These two distinct forms and powers 
of Christianity called Churches have been established in great autho- 
rity on the earth, and have flourished and prevailed in worldly glory 
and honour as two religious kingdoms and domiuions. The first ani 
greatest of these two religious dominions or beasts is composed of two 
divisions called h i Eastern and Western, or the Greek and Roman 
Churches. It exercised exclusive religious dominion over all the 
Christian world, unopposed by any power of opposite principles or 



196 THE pious christian's 

doctrines for several hundred years. Then another opposing and dif- 
ferent power and dominion was set up and established on different 
principles. The professed doctrine of the first dominion and all its 
branches has always been the doctrine of the world, that is of the 
Sea. It was set up originally by worldly powers, potentates, princes 
and others who gave their power to it, and has always been founded 
on that doctrine, setting up man to do works in order to go to heaven. 
The other dominion and religious power opposed to it, arose many 
hundred years after, and was set up in direct opposition to its power 
and doctrine, by men who advocated a purer and a different doctrine, 
professing the doctrine of God, to believe in God and in Christ, the 
righteousness of God for salvation. They who profess the doctrine of 
God, are called the Earth, and it was from the earth that this second 
religious dominion arose, but the first power came up from the Sea. 

For several hundred years the first of these two religious powers and 
dominions reigned alone, a terrible proud and fierce dominion, and 
succeeded in crushing with iron hand all its enemies, destroying with 
lire and sword all opponents who were bold enough to dispute its 
authority or attempt to shake off its yoke from their necks. None 
could stand against it. For the powers that be are ordained of God ; 
therefore this first great power and Establishment which men erected, 
could not be established and set up by them until God permitted and 
ordered that so it should be ; and no other dominion and power could 
succeed in establishing and setting up itself in opposition to it, till Hs 
ordained and suffered it to be done, at the time appointed. 

These two powers, religious dominions or establishments of men, 
distinct in their origin and principles, and bitterly opposed to each 
other, have reigned in great power and glory over the earth, the reli- 
gious world. They and the doctrines and creeds which they have set- 
tled and commanded have been known, followed and submitted to by 
all Christians, as Christianity and the Christian religion. Each of them 
has contended with great zeal and earnestness to be exclusively in its 
ceremonies, discipline and doctrines, the genuine Christian religion 
and true Christianity. Each of these kingdoms has been an earthly 
kingdom and dominion of men yet diverse from all other earthly do- 
minions of men even from all other beasts. Not diverse from them 
in vice, tyranny, injustice, venality, corruption and crime ; being in 
these respects in no wise different from all other kingdoms and pow- 
ers of men ; but while the same and no better than them, they have 
been diverse from them all in this, that unlike all the others, they have 
ruled and exercised power over the very thoughts, minds, hearts, con- 
sciences, and remotest sentiments of men, as well as also over their 
possessions and bodies! It is an astonishiug dominion, tyranny, or 
beast, to which men have been subjected ! 

To the one or the other of these two religious kingdoms, ecclesias- 
tical powers and corporations— all the nations, kingdoms, tongues and 
people of the world professing Christianity and called Christians have 
all belonged, for it was given them to have dominion and to conquer 
and prevail over the earth during a determined time as God had or- 
dered and ordained that it should come to pass, even until forty-two 
months. Men have in all this time universally believed and imagined 
that these two dominions of men, which God has called beasts, were 
Christianity and Christian religion, and that it was absolutely necessary 
and indispensable for them to belong to one or the other of these pre* 
vailing powers and institutions of men in order to belong to God and 
to have any hope of going to heaven. They have believed and ima- 
gined that they belonged to God and were contending for Him and His 
truth,— not by doing righteousness at all times to all men and depart- 
ing from all iniquity— but by belonging to, and sincerely contending 



FAITH AND HOPE. 197 

for the one or the other of these two wicked systems and powers of 
wicked men, or some of the divisions of them. For both have been 
divided among themselves ; the first and the greatest of the two hav- 
ing divided geographically and formed the Greek and Roman Churches, 
(yet one beast or power of the sea,) the lesser and latter of them hav- 
ing been divided into numerous names, sects, or denominations, called 
the Protestant Churches, (yet collectively one same beast and power 
of the earth.) 

Why they are called Beasts. 
These powers which have ruled over the earth, assuming to dictate 
to men what was truth, what they were to believe and what to do, in 
order to get to heaven, have been men. It is man who has thus arro- 
gated to himself the power of God, who has taken vengeance which 
belongs only to God, and has presumed to punish men if they would 
not believe what he, this religious ruler, proudly dictated as the creed 
to be believed, and the duty to be done ! Because this power is man, 
corrupt man, who at his best estate is altogether vanity, who is a beast 
before God, therefore God has called this power dominion and king- 
dom which was man, a beast. The Lord Jesus Christ who has revealed 
and foretold all the history of the Christians in the Book of the Reve- 
lation of Jesus Christ, has described in the 13th chapter of that book 
the origin and character of these two great divisions of Christianity 
these two great kingdoms and dominions,di verse from all other domin- 
ions, and diverse from each other. He has shown how that they arose, 
the one from the Sea, but the other from the Earth, and were to prevail 
and overcome the saints of God and trample the truth under their feet 
for forty-two months that is twelve hundred and sixty years. He has 
shown how the first beast was beautiful and spotted like a leopard, 
violent and fierce like a bear, and spoke great things and blasphemies, 
and that his power was most extensive, even over all kindreds, and 
tongues, and nations. He has shown how the second beast was not so 
violent being more deceiving and " like a lamb? how they made an 
image to the beast worshipping the beast and his image, how they 
forced men by constraint to join their denominations and assume the 
mark of piety, or else they would not let them earn a living among 
them, and how it was a beast of many denominations or names. It is 
this beast which now in this day is made manifest having slain and 
set aside the truth. Deceit is the characteristic of this beast, as violence 
of the other. It has made a deceitful counterfeit like the truth which 
they call the truth and believe in their blindness that their earthly 
doctrine and wisdom is the truth. They are not what they say they 
are, they are only like it in outward show, they are " like a lamb'''' but 
speak as a dragon, pouring smoke, fire and brimstone, threatenings 
and damnation against men out of their mouths, being revengeful and 
malicious against all who do not submit to them putting into their 
bag. This beast " like a lamb? which pretends to feel and look like a 
lamb, and to have such love for souls, yet is so spiteful and malicious 
towards all who are not " seriously disposed" and who refuse to take 
some of their marks of piety, that as the Lord here revealed of them, 
where they can posssbly prevent it by their influence, they will not 
suffer a man to live and earn his living among them, if he is not one 
of them and joins some religious denomination. They will not suffer 
a man to buy or sell save he that hath the mark or the name of the beast 
or the number of his name! The Wisdom of God revealed these things 
ages before either of these two beasts arose. Thus this religious beast 
gives itself the lie ; for while they pretend to be so anxious to make 
men live hereafter, they will not, if they can help it, let them live now 

17* 



198 the pious christian's 

THE SAME TWO BEASTS DESCRIBED BY THE PROPHET DANIEL. 

As the Lord has described these two Beasts or kingdoms ofmen, so 
the Prophet Daniel by His Spirit, has foretold and described the same 
two kingdoms or beasts, the bodies and forms of Christianity, diverse 
from all other beasts or dominions of man and also diverse from each 
other. He describes the first beast as follows, " After this I saw in the 
night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong 
exceedingly ; and it had great iron teeth : it devoured and brake inpieces, 
and stamped the residue with the feet of it : and it was diverse from all 
the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns" 

This is the first beast, the Holy Apostolic Roman Catholic Church, 
as it is called ; a power dreadful, terrible and strong ! never was there 
such a power in the world before it ! It is a beast or kingdom of man 
" diverse from all the beasts that were before it !" Never was there be- 
fore it, such a power! The prophet then describes the beast which 
came out from this beast, saying, " I considered the horns, and behold, 
there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were 
three of the first horns plucked up by the roots : and behold, in this horn 
were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things" 

This is the Second beast, the Protestant Churches as they are called. 
The first beast prevailed by violence, it devoured the earth, but this 
beast has prevailed by its eyes and its mouth, not so much by violence 
and force. It is a small power, a little horn, compared with the first 
great beast, it is more enlightened than it by far ; it had eyes like the 
eyes of a man. The same two beasts or powers, one of which came 
from the other, w r hich are diverse from all other earthly powers, and 
yet diverse from each other (being antagonist in doctrine and always 
bitterly opposed to each other) are again described and revealed to 
Daniel : 

* ; The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, 7ohich shall 
be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall 
tread it doicn, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this 
kingdom are. ten kings that shall rise : and another shall rise after 
them ; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three 
kings. And he shall speak great words against the Most Highland 
shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and 
laws : and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and 
the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take 
away his dominion to consume and destroy it unto the end" 

" And another shall rise after them, and he shall be diverse from the 
first," signifies the other beast which is described in the 13th chapter of 
Revelations as rising out of the Earth (the religious world.) It is 
diverse from its mother, the first beast, and always has been opposed 
to it ; yet it is a religious power, diverse from all other powers, " And 
he shall speak great icords against the Most High." Thus it is different 
from the first beast , it does not like it devour, tread down and break in 
■ pieces the earth, but it fights against God ; its exercise is to pervert the 
truth speaking against the Most High and exalting itself, man, above 
God! It has had nothing like the power of the first beast, it is a 
little horn compared to it, yet it sprang out of it, and was set up by the 
horns or kings w r ho had belonged to the first beast. It has not burnt 
the saints like the first beast, sending them with others to the stake, 
but it has worn them out by deceit fighting ever against the truth. It 
was to have power over the saints, not all the time of the desolation, 
like the first beast, but until the end of the time times and a half. How 
this beast has changed times and seasons in one great particular which 
the other beast never did, is manifest herein. The law expressly says 
" The Seventh day is the Sabbath." They say u No! the first day is the 



FAITH AND HOPE. 199 

Sabbath," and they are as rigid and austere in the bodily observance of 
this great figure of Christ, and in making it a Law of Salvation, as the 
Pharisees were : like them observing days and ceremonies instead of 
doing the righteous deeds of the law ; like them forgetting that God 
requires righteousness and not observances of days and ceremonies ; 
forgetting also that in the day when God will judge the world, He will 
judge men, not according to" deeds of ceremonious religious perform- 
ances, but according to their actions, good or evil ! 

These are the same two beasts, the first from the Sea. the other from 
the Earth, which are more fully revealed in the 13th Revelations. The 
first beast arose in the midst of the first 700 years, (or week of cen- 
turies,) after Christ was glorified. The setting up of this beast, was 
the setting up of the abomination which has ever since made desolate. 
When this beast was set up, then the doctrine of man's sacrifice and 
oblation was set up, and God's true sacrifice and oblation, even Christ 
Jesus and His work of righteousness was made to cease ! Until this 
abomination was set up, the saints of God were called Christians, and 
not Catholics, nor Protestants, nor anything else. Before this beast 
was set up, the saints of God had no earthly dominion nor power 
among men, and claimed and desired none, for they " did not mind 
earthly things" no! but "their conversation was in heaven" The 
Bridegroom was with them. He was not yet taken out of the way, God 
confirmed with them His Convenant of "everlasting righteousness, in 
Christ Jesus, and He was with them and in them, come in the fleshy 
even in His own body, the Church ; He, being in them, performed all 
things for them, He did all righteousness in them, fulfilling the right- 
eousness of the law in them ; they walked not after the flesh, having 
to do something, but after the Spirit, even believing, and having God 
in His Son to do all for them. 

Daniel reveals the first setting up of this beast as follows, saying : 
"And He shall confirm the Covenant with many, for one week ; and in 
the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to 
cease, and for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make desolate, 
even until the Consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon 
the desolate," that is until this day, which is the consummation of the 
desolation, in which the Church of Christ has been for twelve hundred 
and sixty years. When this beast was fully set up, then was the Night 
of desolation of which Christ spake, saying : M the Night cometh when 
no man can icork," saying also, "and the Bridegroom shall be taken away, 
and then shall they mourn in those days," and they have been days of 
mourning indeed ! Of this taking away of the Bridegroom, the living 
sacrifice and oblation, Paul also prophesied, saying: '•'then shall He be 
taken out of the way, and the mystery of iniquity shall be revealed." 
That Iniquity, set up in the midst of the week, was fully revealed at 
the end of the week, and has reigned even since as Christianity and 
the Christian religion ! 

Daniel showed by the Spirit of Christ, that this Abomination should 
exist for twelve hundred and ninety years, saying, "And from the time 
that the daily sacrifice, (He the Lord Jesus,) shall be taken away, and 
the Abomination that makcth desolate set up, shall be twelve hundred and 
ninety days." And the Lord Jesus Christ has revealed, nine times re- 
peated in the Revelations, that the desolation produced by this abom- 
mination, the whole time the Church should be in desolation, in the 
wilderness overcome by the Beast, (which time as the Lord God liveth. 
shall be no longer,) should be twelve hundred and sixty years. Thus 
the abomination itself will last for twelve hundred and" ninety years, 
and its desolation and power over the saints will be for twelve hundred 
and sixty years, even till within thirty years of its end and termina- 
tion. 



200 

Notwithstanding God has revealed so repeatedly this desolation and 
falling away, the Chrisiians, who say they believe everything and deny 
nothing, will not believe that there is, or has been any desolation ! No 
man knows his own character, what he is ! so completely doth sin 
blind the eyes and harden the heart ! When the Son of Perdition sat 
at table with the Lord, and the thirty pieces of silver jingled in his 
pocket, he did not believe that he was the Betrayer of the Lord, he 
who had preached His name, and done so much and suffered so much 
"for the cause," it could not be possible; therefore he confidently 
appealed to the Lord Himself, to prove his innocence, saying, "Lord is 
it V ? He thought, of course, it could not be him, he had strong faith 
and full assurance of faith — in himself! So the pious Christians think 
it utterly impossible, that they, with such great piety, are what they 
are, yea ! what the Holy Ghost called them ages before, viz : the Son of 
Perdition, who should be revealed ! 

Thus the Abomination, as revealed by Christ, speaking in Daniel, 
was to be for twelve hundred and ninety years ; the desolation of the 
church, under the abomination, as revealed by the Lord, speaking in 
John, was only to be for twelve hundred and sixty years. Also it is 
revealed in Daniel, that the whole time from his seeing the vision, till 
this day, when the beast and his doctrine shall be cast out of the 
sanctuary by the Word of the Lord and the Spirit of His mouth, and 
the sanctuary be cleansed, is two thousand and three hundred years. 
Thus God saith in Daniel, "How long- shall be the Vision, concerning 
the Daily Sacrifice and the transgression which maketh desolate, and to 
give the holy City to be trodden down ? and he said unto me, until the 
evening and the morning of two thousand and three hundred years, 
and then the holy (City or People,) shall be made righteous," they having 
been till now overcome by Iniquity. Therefore, from the time of the 
vision, which Daniel saw, to this day, is two thousand and three hun- 
dred years, and, therefore, if this is eighteen hundred and fifty-one, the 
vision was four hundred and forty-nine years before the present com- 
putation of years began, for four hundred and forty-nine, and eighteen 
hundred and fifty-one, is two thousand and three hundred years ! 

How the second Beast was set up. 

K Thus hath Daniel revealed the setting up of the Abomination by the 
first beast, in the midst of the seven hundred years, in which the cove- 
nant was confirmed with multitudes of them that believed. Then was 
established that cruel, wicked dominion, organized as a religious sys- 
tem and corporation, pretending to inherit authority from the saints and 
apostles, who never sought nor had any earthly authority whatever, 
and pretending to have power from heaven to reign and rule over 
men's consciences in wrath, violence and unrighteousness ! calling its 
abominations the Holy apostolic Church, and the Christian religion ! 
The doctrine of this violent and bloody beast, is the doctrine of the 
Sea, the common doctrine of human nature, viz: the works of man 
which they falsely call good works, according to which men bless them- 
selves in Everlasting Blessing, by their own work, not according to any 
law, (that is, according as their deeds deserve,) but with astonishing 
audacity give themselves heaven for their earthly deeds ! As this doc- 
trine of the doing and ability of man is the universal doctrine of the 
Sea, that is the world, and is the whole foundation of all the impure 
and defiled religions of the world, by which men are going to go to 
heaven, if they do something, this first beast is said to have come up 
out of the Sea. But the doctrine of the second beast is different. They 
vehemently cry out against and zealously oppose the first beast, for its 
doctrine of going to heaven, by the works and virtue of man, and say 



FAITH AND HOPE. 201 

in truth, that it is not the Gospel ! they profess to receive and follow 
the true doctrine of the only true God, the God of Israel ! they say 
they believe in Him only for Salvation, that they are saved by 
His Grace only, and not by man's works ! Thus in words they 
confess the whole truth of God, which they afterwards deny. They 
are of the Earth, not of the Sea, not of the world of men who believe 
not and profess not to follow and obey the Word and Oracles of God. 
Therefore, this beast or dominion of men is revealed with exact ap- 
propriateness, as ascending out of the Earth, from the multitude and 
congregation of those who profess to worship God. This dominion or 
beast, was expressly set up in opposition to the doctrine of the first 
beast, and has ever since continued to inveigh and fight against that 
beast, because of its doctrine. Men of all kinds, a mixed congregation, 
united to set up this second religious dominion, in opposition to that 
first dominion. Some hated and smarted under the tyranny and op- 
pressive rule of the first beast ; some hated it for its exactions, its 
arrogance, its cupidity and insatiable avarice ; some sought to build up 
political power, honour, or profit, to themselves, by its overthrow ; and 
lastly, some few among them all, feared God and loved truth, and hated 
falsehood, lies, and abominations, as far as it was given them to under- 
stand, at the time. All pretended and professed, of course, to be con- 
tending for the truth of the doctrine of Christ, in opposition to the 
doctrine of the first beast. Thus the dominion, the beast, which arose, 
came up, out of the Earth, and was founded on the profession of the 
truth and the Word of God. It was, however, a mixed congregation 
of worshippers, all professing a wonderful zeal for the truth of God, 
yet most of them having united to set up the new dominion, out of 
pure hatred to the old one, — not because they loved righteousness, and 
sought to depart from all iniquity. God who searcheth the hearts and 
trieth the reins, would therefore try all these professors, who professed 
to love the truth of the gospel so wonderfully ! There was to come 
therefore, an hour of temptation on the Earth, to try the religious pro- 
fessors, (them that dwelt on the Earth.) This time has since been up- 
on the Earth, (the religious world,) it has been a day of great religious 
tribulation and excitement, Satan has poured forth a flood, out of his 
mouth, to overflow the truth in the vast multitude of follies and lies, so 
as to make truth itself, hateful and suspicious, that men might be led 
to believe, (as it is in this day,) that there is no truth ! This temptation 
to come upon the Earth, the religious world, God, however, held back 
and postponed it, for the sake of a people of faithful and true worship- 
pers, till they were passed away, who are called the Church in Phila- 
delphia. 

How the second beast has been continually coming up, out of the Earthy 
in the shape and name of someneio sect. 
The first beast is revealed as having come up, out of the Sea at once, 
a compact power and united dominion, and of this its compactness 
and unity, it has always greatly boasted, glorying over the second beast, 
on account of it ! The other Beast, on the contrary, was seen coming 
up, not at once a compact power, like the first Beast, but coming up, 
out of the Earth, at different times, as religious, that is, earthly men, 
successively started some new T scheme of religious improvement or 
reformation, forming thereupon some new name or sect ; for it is 
44 that troop" of many names. It has been continually coming up ever 
since its first beginning, and is still coming up even to this d°y, out of 
the earth by the formation, every now and then, in the religious world, 
of some new sect or denomination, each of them built upon some new 
religious idea, plan, view, or evangelical scheme. It is a beast of 
number and the whole number altogether is but one and the same 
thing, viz., man ! a beast ! " It is the number of a man," saith the 



202 the pious christian's 

Lord. Of the first beast the Lord says in His servant John, u I saw a 
Beast rise up out of the Sea." But of the second Beast He says " And 
I beheld another Beast coming up out of the Earth." 

Neither of these two Beasts teach the truth, " He that believeth shall 
be saved" which would at once destroy them both, do away with their 
power and agency, and be an acknowledgment of God instead of 
themselves ! 

The first Beast teaches instead, that if you belong to it, to Mother 
Church as it calls itself, you shall be saved, and if not you are a heretic 
beyond the pale of salvation. The second Beast requires men to take 
the mark of the beast. It is not enough to belong to it, it teaches no 
such confidence in Mother Church, there is no salvation in merely 
belonging to it, but it furthermore requires men to take the mark of tho 
beast, and to have the character and show of genuine piety in order to 
be saved. With the first beast, if you belong to Mother Church, and 
submit to it, in all things, you are a believer ; with the second beast, 
if you take its mark and make a show of piety, you are a believer. 
There is not much difference, for the piety of the second beast is merely 
doing what the beast says is good to do, which varies with the time 
and age in any amount and quality. The first beast however appears 
more liberal and less strict, for if you arc a true son of the Church that 
is enough ; but not so with the second beast ; for if you do not make 
an image to man and if you are not very strict and truly pious and 
get a change,your belonging to it will not save you ! you must not only 
belong to it but you must also have the mark of the beast on your 
forehead or in your hand ; you must make a show of your piety by 
looks or deeds, as the Lord revealed. The first beast has seven heads 
or objects of worship, the chief of which is the beast even man, (he 
who receives a deadly wound by the sword of the law, and then lives, 
does righteousness, becomes a saint and goes to heaven.) The second 
beast professes to hold the head even Christ, and to have no other head, 
and yet under the name of the regenerate man it sets up the same beast 
or head which the other trusts in, and teachesmen to put their trust in 
man, and in his feelings and doings, thus worshipping the same beast. 
The Condition of the Saints and People of God during the Desolation, 
God has had His people and saints mixed up with both beasts dur- 
ing all the time of their reign and dominion. In all this time of deso- 
lation there have been saints and prophets of God, but because the 
Bridegroom was" taken away they have fasted and mourned. It was 
given to the wicked one, to prevail over them and slay them and put 
them down whenever and wherever they appeared. They have been 
hidden ones, the meek of the Earth, cast out, persecuted, reviled, 
hated, overcome by the Beast, whom the world hath not known, but 
(Joel hath known and sealed them for himself. Though in bondage to 
the liesh, they have been the Creation of God, branches of His Christ, 
groaning for deliverance, hating iniquity, and longing after Righteous- 
ness from God ! They have sought after God in truth by the Spirit of 
Truth within them, all their righteousness has been from God though 
they knew not the glory of His righteousness, and the Snn of right- 
eousness has healed them though they have not beheld on the earth all 
the joy and glory thereof! Many of them have testified the truth, 
preaching righteousness even Christ, though in sackcloth ; they have 
testified the truth— yet not they men,— God forbid ! men never testify 
truth, but the Spirit of God and of Christ which was in them. How 
many of them have been cast out and slain by the Beast, whenever it 
suspected or detected any of them; how many have been cast into 
prisons and put to cruel tortures and killed, the last great day will re- 
veal! The number of them is that of a mighty host, who though put 
to death as heretics before the world, and as criminals with criminals, 
charged with all sorts of crimes and terrible doctrines, by the Beast 



FAITH AND HOPE. ', 203 

Which delights in accusation and lies, yet God knew them and was 
with them, and will bring forth their light in due time, as the noon- 
day, when they shall shine like stars in the firmament of heaven! The 
day in which all the hidden things of darkness will be brought to light 
will reveal how many in sorrow distress and trouble, have been taken 
from the world, and Immured in dungeons from the light of heaven, 
and there, where they thought to have found nothing but misery and 
death, they have found in darkness and gloom shut out from the con- 
Terse of men, light, and life and blessing, such as they never would 
have found in all the glory of the world, and in all its deceitful pro- 
mises of happiness ! Thus the members of Christ, His own body, have 
been crucified with Him, and found in dying to the flesh and all its 
pride and sin, that they entered into joy unspeakable and full of glory ! 
How these when led out to death in infamy and disgrace with cruel 
mockings taunts and scourgings, from savage priests, servants and min- 
isters of the beast, have been in their afflictions held up by the right 
hand of God's righteousness, and been made joyful and glad by His 
presence— God knoweth, and that day will reveal! they are a mighty 
host out of all nations and kindreds, Jews and Gentiles, who like sheep 
have been led to the slaughter, of whom the world was not worthy — 
whose hearts have been purified by faith, who have trusted in God 
and His Christ, and have been clothed with righteousness and glory 
in the midst of shame, and spitting, and cruel tortures. These were 
all overcome by the Beast : as long as it reigned alone, men were 
afraid that even* their unuttered thoughts should bring them under its 
tortures and oppressions. 

Thus has God had His people and church under the first beast, but 
hidden, crushed, trampled under foot by its power ! But the truth of 
God has been more plainly known, more openly preached and mani- 
fested, more brightly seen and taught under the power of the se- 
cond beast. It was a great mercy of God to His people to deliver 
them from the cruel tyranny of the first beast, by raising up a power 
opposed to it, under which they had a freedom which would have 
bi ought death upon them from *the first beast. Under this earthly 
religious establishment and power of the earth, or beast, the truth of 
God has had more freedom and freeer course. It was, however, a 
kingdom of this world, a power of men, not the kingdom of God, 
which God suffered men to establish in mercy to His church and peo- 
ple, to give them greater rest and freedom of worship, than they had 
under the cruel dominion of the first beast. It is to this second beast, 
or dominion of men, that they belong who in this day have established 
a pious power and religious city, men of Belial, enemies of God's 
righteousness, who, after long fighting against the truth and doctrine 
of Christ, testified by His servants, though in sackcloth and weakness, 
have at length triumphed, and succeeded in overcoming and slaying 
the remnant of truth which was still upon the Earth, setting up a vile 
counterfeit of the truth, and a system of deceit and falsehood, which 
has been in part laid open and set in order before their eyes in the 
preceding pages of this book. This is the beast, the City of Confusion, 
the City of Sodom and Egypt, the Son of Perdition, the Antichrist 
who, it was revealed, should arise and prevail, as it now has prevailed, 
wi h all deceivableness of unrighteousness. It is the Beast which 
ascendeth out of the bottomless pit of the Earth, it is the man of sin, 
exalted in his pious pride, instead of and above God ! This beast has 
succeeded, by deceit and under pretence of loving the truth, to cast 
dcwn and overthrow the truth, which the first beast, by all his force 
and violence, never could succeed in doing. Thus Satan, having 
failed in open warfare, has succeeded by transforming himself and his 
ministers into angels of light ! All this has happened as the Lord 



204 the pious christian's 

Jesus Christ revealed it should come to pass before the coming of the 
day of Restoration, when God will build up the Tabernacle of Jacob 
which is fallen down, when " the Mountain of the Lord's House shall 
be established above the Mountains?' when, instead of a Beast like 
a Lamb, the Lamb and His kingdom shall be set up, and He shall 
reign for ever and ever ! This time is at hand as the Lord hath re- 
vealed, saying, ^ I looked and lo ! a Lamb stood on the Mount ZionP 
Satan has known before that his time is short, therefore he hath set 
up all kinds of counterfeits and lies beforehand, to deceive men 
when it shall begin to come to pass, even counterfeiting the coming 
Kingdom, by setting up a people calling themselves " The Latter 
Day Saints." But God will cause all this wickedness of man, to work 
together for good to His saints, to fulfil His purpose of Mercy and 
Love towards them. 

The Revelation of the History of the Christian Churches, the setting 
up of the Abomination, the Universal Falling Away, the Rising of 
the Protestant Churches, and a history of them down to this day, the 
day of the Consummation ; by the Lord Jesus Christ. 

This wonderful History, given by the Lord Jesus Christ, nearly 
eighteen hundred years ago, commences with the opening of the 
Seals in the 6th chapter of his Revelation ; (a brief history of all the 
churches from the first preaching of the Gospel to the present Time 
of the church of Laodicea, having been given in the preceding chap- 
ters, in the form of admonition to them severally). This History 
again commences with the first preaching of the Gospel, and is car- 
ried on continuously to the 10th chapter, in which God, speaking in 
His servant, pronounces the end of this Time ; (for as the Lord said, 
u it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of my Father lohich speaketh in 
you ;") in which it is shown that the beloved who was to tarry till 
He came, after having tarried nearly two thousand years, should now 
tarry no longer, but led by the Spirit should take and eat the Word of 
truth, as the Prophet Jeremiah spake, u Thy Word was found and I 
did cat it." John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, showed forth as a 
type His people and beloved of this day, who were to tarry till He 
came ! 

At the opening of the first seal is shown the triumphant course of 
the Word of God in the first Church of Christ. " And I saw, and be- 
hold a white horse : and he that sat on him had a bow ; and a crown was 
given unto him ; and he went forth conquering, and to conquer." 

The opening of the second seal shows the condition of the next 
Church of Christ in the world, the Church in Smyrna, when there 
were cruel persecutions, and the saints of God were slain by men. 
u And there went out another horse that was red : and power was given 
to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should 
kill one another : and there was given unto him a great sword. 

The opening of the third seal shows the next Church of Christ, the 
Church in Pergamos, in which the mystery of iniquity now began to 
work, and the doctrine of Balaam was held, for now the midst of the 
week was beginning. u And when he had opened the third seal, I heard 
Uic third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse ; 
and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard 
a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a 
penny, and three measures of barley for a penny ; and see thou hurt not 
the oil and the wine. 

Now it was that the darkness of false doctrine began to spread and 
to be preached, for a horseman signifies a fleshly preacher. Now began 
first the doctrine of the balances of deceit, when deceivers having 
arisen and gradually gained an ascendancy in the assemblies, it began 



FAITH AND HOPE. 205 

to be taught, (though gradually and cautiously at first,) that you must 
do a little something, only however a little, in order to go to heaven ! 
You must give at least a penny for a measure of wheat and a penny 
for three measures of barley. It is the doctrine which the orthodox 
of the pious Christians deceivingly call the "glorious gospel v and 
M the wonderful grace of God," saying, if you do a little piety, only a 
little, then God will he so very good ; if you only perform a little 
condition, only give a penny, you shall have the bread of life ! but if 
you will not give a penny, if you do not do something, then there is 
no wheat for you, then God will not give nor do ! Thus they use 
scales with God, and make merchandize of His grace ! 

The opening of the fourth seal shows the condition of the next 
Church of Christ, the church in Thyatira, and the effects of this doc- 
trine when it had spread and worked and become the reigning doc- 
trine. " And I looked, and behold a pale horse : and his name that sat 
on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given 
unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with 
hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth." 

They had now raised the price from a penny to a great amount of 
contribution and doing, (and this is less deceitful, to say you must do 
a great deal in order to go to heaven, than to say you must do a very 
little or scarcely anything) Death and hell followed this preaching; 
even the knowledge of sin, the consciousness of not doing, which is 
death, and the agony and torment of a guilty conscience, which is 
hell. The doctrines of death, of weeping and penance, now pre- 
vailed. Now it was taught and believed that men must suffer and be 
miserable, and groan, and feel that they are sinners, and feel con- 
demned—that is, damned— in order to be saved ! The fleshly preacher, 
who preaches death and condemnation, and the necessity of feeling 
death and condemnation and conviction of sin, and who labours to 
work up in his hearers all the horrors and pangs of guilt and con- 
demnation in their consciences, is described as death on a pale horse. 
By a horse is signified the strength and beauty, the energy and 
animation of the fleshly man, while chariots signify his bust- 
ling works and doings, M some trust in chariots, some in horses." 
Death and hell, condemnation and misery, followed now with the 
pale horsemen, the preachers of death. They had pale woe-begone 
mortified countenances, the stamp and mark of deep and eminent 
piety. Joy and gladness were banished as criminal. Deep conviction 
of sin was in vogue, the death and condemnation which these pale 
horsemen carry with them wherever they go, calling it heaven and 
gospel. Now it was the midst of the week. There was a famine of 
the word of God, and hunger, want and mourning to the children, yet 
notwithstanding the spreading of false doctrine, there were still 
some few saints with whom the covenant was confirmed till the seven 
hundred years were ended. Now, fleshly men, with their pious doc- 
trines and proud doings — the beasts of the earth— prevailed and de- 
stroyed men, turning them away from the faith, yet deceitfully, with 
the leaven of unrighteousness, only a little doing of man ! 

The opening of the fifth seal shows how the saints of God, having 
been persecuted, cast out and slain by the men of the earth, (the beast 
who began to prevail, and had now the ascendancy,) called upon 
God against the power and rage of the enemy, wondering at the mys- 
tery how God should suffer the wicked to prevail and prosper, and 
the truth and glory of God to be despised and trampled under foot by 
wicked men upon the earth. Well they might wonder, for it is a 
wonderful mystery, an abomination which astonisheth ! " And when 
he had opened the fifth seal, I saw tinder the altar the souls of them that 
were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held : 
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, Lord, holy and 
18 



206 THE pious christian's 

true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on 
the earth ? And white robes were given unto every one of them ; and it 
was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until 
their felloto- servants also and their brethren, that should be killed, as 
they were, should be fulfilled*" 

It was shown to them that still there was a season yet to be, wherein 
the enemy should still go on to prosper and prevail and slay their 
fellow-servants and brethren. They were to rest and have patience 
till the time was fulfilled. But God avengeth his saints who cry day 
and night unto Him, (they take not vengeance, it belongeth to God 
only) and the just vengeance of God immediately followed when God 
took away His truth from the earth which they, the religious profes- 
sors, loving their own earthly system of religion rather than the joy 
and gladness of God, had cast from them and despised. Hitherto the 
mystery of iniquity had worked, but God, who letteth, had let hitherto. 
But now at length the time was come of which Paul prophesied, 
when He, the sacrifice and oblation, should be taken out of the way. 
Now it was that the mystery which had been working triumphed, the 
Abomination which had been gradually setting up, was fully set up 
and completely established. 

The opening of the sixth seal reveals that space of time in the which, 
while the many with whom God confirmed His covenant in Christ 
were gradually diminishing and departing, the Abomination which 
astonisheth having been set up, was now gradually prevailing till it 
was fully established. For these things which were thus revealed, 
before they came to pass, in a few words which are read in a moment, 
did not come to pass, in a moment. The setting up of the abomina- 
tion had already begun and had been going on a long time in the 
midst of the week. It was completed and finished, and the falling 
away total and universal when the week was ended. Those who 
followed the heavenly truth and doctrine had been gradually falling 
to the earthly doctrines of men, like untimely figs from the fig-tree. 
In the time of the sixth seal, which lasted till the opening of the 
seventh seal, this event happened, and is thus revealed: "Andlbe- 
held when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earth- 
quake : and the sun became black as a sackcloth of hair, and the moon 
became as blood: And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as 
a Jig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty 
wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together ; 
and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And 
the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the 
chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free- 
man, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains, and 
said to the mountains, Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that 
sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb ; for the great day 
of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand." 

There was a long and great tumult, trouble and agitation in the re- 
ligious world, the earth, that is a great earthquake. The truth of the 
doctrine of the righteousness and salvation of God, His Christ, the sun 
was darkened. The works of man, of his doing and duty, that is the 
law, which is as the moon shining in the dark night of this world of 
sin and darkness, became with men instead of the blood and sacrifice 
of Jesus Christ, the moon was turned into blood. Men were to go to 
heaven now by their works, and performance of duties, ceremonies 
and observances, by their toil and labour, by flagellations, pilgrimages, 
and penance ; they now withdrew themselves from the world into 
dens and caverns, and astonished mankind by their anchorite severi- 
ties, for it is an abomination which astonisheth and is astonishing. 
Now the congregation of the Lord, the stars of heaven, fell unto the 
earth, they became earthly, following the earthly doctrines of man, 



FAITH AND HOPE. 20? 

and the impure, defiled religion of fleshly man. The Scriptures, the 
word of life, grace and truth, which declare the glory of God, the 
heaven, became a hidden word, departed, closely rolled together and 
shut up like a scroll. All fell away, there was no exception. Fear 
and terror, and dark religious superstition, and fleshly awe, blindness, 
violence and ignorance now took the place of peace, love, and joy in 
the Lord. Now the first beast fully reigned, without rival, in all his 
power and glory ; now the truth of God was cast down to the ground, 
and error, falsehood, superstition, covetousness, lust, and priestly 
pride and wickedness, the corporation of the wicked, the dominion 
of unrighteousness was henceforth called Christianity and the Chris- 
tian Religion. So it has continued ever since, though in the midst of 
the desolation, God has had and raised up at different times a people 
who have known and preached His truth, though in sackcloth. Ever 
since this Time (which as the Lord liveth shall be no longer) the 
Church has been in the Wilderness, overcome by the beast ; in death 
and mourning, not entering into Rest, but like Moses from the top of 
Pisgah, seeing the Inheritance afar off and hoping for it. The two 
witnesses of God have prophesied, but in sackcloth, till this day when 
they are both slain, and the long Desolation is now consummated ! 

The opening of the seventh seal shows that now the reign of the 
beast on the earth was total and complete, now the Bridegroom was 
taken out of the way. It has been shown in a chapter intervening, 
how God sealed and saved a remnant in all this Time of the abomi- 
nation. 

" And when he had opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven 
about the space of half an hour." 

There was now a total silence of the heavenly truth in the kingdom 
of the beast, for a season ; its reign and dominion was now universal 
and established. The truth of God, his two witnessess, were not how- 
ever slain as it is in this day by the beast out of the earth, but they were 
silent. No voice was lifted up against the beast and his doctrine, he 
had no opposition for a season. The heavenly truth was not killed, 
as it is now, but it was silent. But now God causes His truth to be 
raised up and taught under the power of a milder and gentler Beast. 

The Rise and Progress of the Protestants. 

Seven angels now prepared to sound, showing the things which 
were to come on the earth during this seventh seal while the abomi- 
nation still continued. When the first angel sounded it is shown how 
the second beast should arise, the next form and shape of Christianity 
called Protestantism. But before this event happened called the 
Protestant Reformation, before the first angel sounded announcing 
this event, there were " voices and lightnings and thunderings and an 
earthquake," that is, a shaking of the earth, signifying commotions in 
the religious world. For God heard the cries of his people, his crea- 
tion groaning and travailing in bondage. These voices and lightnings 
and earthquakes signify the various religious commotions which 
now began to occur on the earth (the religious world) previous to 
the rise of the Protestant power; making it to shake, disturbing 
greatly the peace of the first beast, which now reigned alone with- 
out any opposition, no religious power yet existing as a rival to it. 
Many saints of God arose at different times declaring the word and 
truth of God in opposition to the beast, these were the " voices P 
Such were Wickliffe, Huss and others, who prophesied though in 
sackcloth, before any permanent Protestant power, a second beast, 
arose. These and others preached the truth of God, as God gave to 
them, but they set up no power nor dominion in opposition to the 
beast. 



208 THE pious christian's 

After the voices, when the first angel sounded, those events hap- 
pened in the earth, (the religious world,) which ended in establishing 
anew earthly religious power and dominion. This is what is called 
the Protestant Reformation. The religious character of the Church 
which now arose is here revealed, showing what was the condition of 
the people of God under this new ministration. " The first angel 
sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and, they 
were cast upon the earth : and the third part of trees was burnt up, and 
all green grass was burnt up." 

This was the Church in Sardis, the first beginning of the Protestant 
churches. The people of God were under a ministration of death, 
under the law and the knowledge of sin, which is death. It is a 
ministration which is glorious ; for to trust in the blood of atonement 
by Jesus Christ, to long after deliverance from all evil-doing, to 
seek and thirst after righteousness, to hope for it from God by His 
mercy, (though yet we have it not, and receive not the Promise), is glo- 
rious, but it hath no glory in comparison with the ministration of life 
in Christ Jesus. They now suffered the hail and fire of the law, and 
were burnt up because of sin ; but the hail and fire were mingled 
with blood, with a knowledge of Christ and the redemption which is 
by his blood. In the midst of suffering, sorrow and condemna- 
tion, because of sin, they had hope and trust in the blood of Jesus 
Christ, beholding and trusting in the mercy and compassion and love 
of God in His sacrifice and blood-shedding. This church has a great 
name for life at this time of the reformation, but they were dead 
though they knew it not. The Spirit saith unto this church, " thou 
hast a name that thou livest, and art dead." They were burnt up by 
the law, by its hail and lire, knowing sin by the law, as many of them 
as were of God, trees of his planting. They were flesh, that is grass, 
but green grass ; that is, having the spirit of life, even of Christ in 
them. Though in the flesh carnal and under the law, vainly sup- 
posing in their fleshly wisdom and pride that the knowledge and per- 
ception of sin w r as the knowledge of God, that suffering condemna- 
tion for sin, and groaning after righteousness, was righteousness, and 
that their death was life, yet they believed and saw and hoped in the 
blood, and that is a precious and a glorious hope. 

This was the beginning and rise of the second worldly form and 
earthly shape of Christianity,when a new religious empire and dominion 
was established on the earth, and another beast or religious dominion 
ascended out of the earth, as is more fully revealed in a separate chap- 
ter. Under this dominion the truth necessarily had freeer course and 
was better known, for this power was established on the express 
profession of the truth and in direct opposition to the doctrine of the 
first beast, it arose out of the earth and contended against the doctrine 
of the sea. Therefore though it was an earthly kingdom of earthly 
power and glory, which men and politicians had established, a king- 
dom of this world, a religious political power, and though "it exer- 
cised all the power of the first beast" and overcame the saints who 
were mixed up with it, yet, notwithstanding all this, the saints of 
<5od in its midst had such freedom under it as they had never before 
had under the savage beast, since the first setting up of the abomina- 
tion which had made desolate. This beast being founded on the 
profession of the truth could not openly crush the truth like the first 
beast, but was obliged to make an appearance of loving it, since it 
was founded on the profession of it. 

The history of the Church of Christ under the now established Protes- 
tant power, that is, under the second beast, which now had ascended 
and was ascending, is thus continued, showing how the truth had gone 
on prospering and prevailing among the saints of God in the 



FAITH AND HOPE. 209 

midst of this second beast or kingdom, and under its dominion. 
** And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burn- 
ing with fire was cast into the sea : and the third part of the sea became 
blood : And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and 
had life, died ; and the third part of the ships were destroyed." 

After the first Church in Sardis had passed away, the truth of God 
now prevailed and grew mightily, and the saints of God in this time 
are called by the Spirit, the Church in Philadelphia. They had now 
emerged more fully and more completely than the former children 
out of the blindness, superstitions and terrors of the fh-st beast. At 
first they had hardly shaken off, and only with fear and doubt, many 
of the superstitious practices and doctrines which they had been born 
under, and accustomed to revere. But now 7 a generation arose which 
had not been polluted by connection with the first beast ; the Church 
now had a u little strength? being strong a in the Lord." Therefore the 
law, that great mountain burning with fire, was cast from them into 
the sea. They believed unto greater salvation, they boasted in they 
Lord, in his righteousness, His salvation, His eternal power and ever- 
lasting love ; their boast was not in man and his wonderful personal 
piety. They now had faith, * as a grain of mustard seed" and this 
mountain was cast from them into the ■sea. The heavy load of that 
mountain of wrath, burning with fire, was taken off their consciences, 
which were purged from dead works, (from the fear and terror of having 
to do our works, from the condemnation for not doing our works, 
which, after alL are but dead works, the works of man, that is, of the 
dead.) They walked in the righteousness of God, receiving Christ 
Jesus to be with them and in them, doing all things for them. By 
Him, therefore, they were truly delivered from all iniquity, receiving 
Him to fulfil the righteousness' of the law in them, according to their 
faith. The world knew them not, but God knew them, and loved 
them. Now the fear and terror of the law was removed off from them 
and cast into the sea ; that is, men seeing their good works, (yet not 
theirs but Christ's, who dwelt in them,) greatly feared, and glorified 
the God of Heaven. The world around them, perceiving the truth 
and reality of heavenly things manifest in them, feared God ; the terror 
t)f the law was cast upon them, they boasted not of the dignity of 
human nature, of their power and the beauty of their philosophy and 
virtue ; these, their ships, were destroyed, instead of being sure, (as 
now they are,) at the very sight of piety and religion, that there is no 
-God, and that all is mere talk and deception, they feared when they 
-saw the righteous works and manifest power of Christ, in these the 
•servants of God; many were slain in their consciences, they died, and 
many were constrained by their fears to become religious, that is, 
■" they became blood? professing to believe and hope therein. Now 
the Earth receiving the rain from heaven, serving God, hearkening to 
His Word, brought forth fruit, not briars and thorns only, as in this 
day, and it was blessed of God. The nation and people among whom 
they chiefly were found, were blessed of God for their sakes, for they 
feared God on their account. He gave wisdom to the rulers and pros- 
perity to the nation, and this is the cause of that earthly blessing and 
national superiority which men, in their pride and ignorance, foolishly 
attribute to rt Anglo-Saxon blood (* It was thus G od blessed the Jewish 
nation above all other nations and people ; but after that they refused 
to hear Him whom He had sent, they were punished with a curse, a 
scattering and an overthrow, until this day, such as never before ever 
befel any other nation or people. So will it be with the Pious Chris- 
tians, who consider not these things, and are not turned to the Lord. 

Now it was that among Protestants, the heavenly truth and doctrine 
of God, of the righteousness of God, not of man, was generally received 
18* 



210 the pious christian's 

by the Earth, the professors of religion. It was something- now to he 
a Protestant, for Protestantism was not an ostentatious show of savage 
piety, a whoredom and abomination, either atheism, liberality and 
philosophy, or the vile worship of the beast and his image,, a setting 
up of mar, or of the sentimental feeling altered man ! (The truth then 
received on the Earth, though gradually darkened and partly extin- 
guished by the tribulation which follows, has never since then been 
utterly slain, till the present day, when the two witnesses of God, His 
Law and His Gospel, which testify together, and testify only righteous- 
ness, now are both slain by the beast out of the bottomless pit, the 
doctrine emanating from the unfathomable depths of the deceitful and 
desperately wicked heart of the proud, vain, personally pious man.) 
The Church was still in the wilderness, it was still the time of desola- 
tion, the holy city of ihe people of God was still trodden under foot of 
the Gentiles, and the Beast, the Ecclesiastical power, persecuted the 
saints of God, but it was not the consummation of desolation, as it is 
in this day. It was given to the witnesses of God to prophesy by His 
servants, though in sackcloth, and in the midst of revilers and enemies. 
They, the servants of God, preached and contended for the truth, 
according as it was given, though the beast ruled and prevailed over 
the earth, persecuting, overcoming, casting out the saints of God, 
Yet in spite of the beast, in spite of Ecclesiastical tyranny and oppres- 
sion, the Church of Christ multiplied and increased. 

But it was a mixed congregation ; there were mixed up with them 
those who received the truth, but not in the love of it, who cleaved 
unto them with flatteries. There were enemies, ever since the so-called 
Reformation, mixed up with them, who found their interest or glory 
in professing to receive the truth; therefore the hour of temptation 
was coining, to try them that dwelt on the earth, (the religious pro- 
fessors,) which hour God had hitherto restrained for the sake of his 
true and holy people. 

Now at the sounding of the third angel cometh the temptation, and 
the righteous vengeance of God, who takcth vengeance,, to whom 
alone it belongeth, who especially rewardeth all those who say they 
love him, when they are liars, and love not the truth, hut love this 
world and its lusts ; who say they are Jews when they are not, but 
are of the synagogue of Satan. The honey-comb of the Gospel, of 
Blessing and Love, the gift of righteousness in Christ Jesus, without 
the works of man, is distasteful to those who secretly desire their own 
glory ; they ever lust in their hearts after the flesh, that is, after doing 
something* themselves, that they may have whereof to glory. God 
will separate the w r heat from the chaff, He will try all them who pro- 
fess to worship Him, but who worship the beast, having hope in man 
to do ! They who are of the truth, who love God and righteousness, 
will stand the trial and endure, for they trust in God; but they who 
are liars will not be kept, for they trust not in God to keep them. 

" And the third angel sounded, and there Jell a great star from heaven, burning as 
it were a lamp, and Jell upon a third part of the rivers, and upon the- fountains of 
waters ; and the name of the star is called Wormwood : and the third peert of the waters- 
became wormwood ; and many men died of the ivatet^s, because they were ?nade bitter J 1 

This was the beginning of the temptation to come on the earth, to 
try them that dwelt on the earth, the professors of the true doctrine 
and worship of God. The tribulation was not to come in all its full- 
ness till the church in Philadelphia was passed away. The falling of 
this star was the beginning of that which was to come to pass. The 
signification of the above words i3 this: there suddenly arose a new 
doctrine in the earth, (the religious world) a doctrine the very con- 
trary of the truth hitherto received. A great star which fell from 
heaven signifies a distinguished man of the congregation of those who 



FAITH AND HOPE. 211 

professed the true worship and faith. Falling from heaven signifies 
departing from the true and heavenly doctrine. This man now ap- 
peared bringing a new light or doctrine, pretending to be great truth, 
burning as if it were indeed a lamp and a light. It fell upon a great 
portion of the people of the earth, (the waters,) perverting, wresting 
and embittering the water of life, the word of the Scriptures, by 
its new interpretation. The name of this star was Bitterness, or 
Wormwood, and the name of the distinguished man or great star 
who now appeared was Arminius, a name composed literally of the 
root of the Hebrew which signifies bitterness or wormwood. By his 
doctrine he made the waters of life bitter indeed ; destroying the life 
and hope of many ; bringing in a bitter doctrine ; teaching that man 
must be the beginner ; he must first begin and do, before God will 
be good and gracious ; teaching that God is not good from ever- 
lasting to all them that hear His word, who are of God, His crea- 
tion in Christ, His chosen, that He hath not created them His peculiar 
people in Christ Jesus, before the foundation of the world,— that it is 
not by Him, nor because they are of Him, His creation and beloved, 
that they hear and believe, but that it is by their own will, if they 
will, and not of the will, mercy and Love of God only ! This new 
doctrine, the root of bitterness, now first sprung up in the Protestant 
churches, conveyed in disguised and deceitful language, in a pious 
manner, so as to beguile the simple, and to appear as if it was really 
true, as it were a lamp. It was a marked and memorable event, and 
it so troubled the churches, that a solemn assembly of delegates from 
all the Protestant countries in Christendom met together to discuss 
and decide upon the doctrine. This assembly from all the Protestant 
churches was called the Synod of Dort, after the place (a city in 
Holland) where they met. For it was a root of bitterness which 
sprung up and greatly troubled the earth. The doctrines of Arminius 
were there publicly examined, discussed and debated, and finally, 
after long debating, were publicly condemned and rejected by the 
Assembly, so strange and novel to the Earth at that time was the doc- 
trine which now isthe universal doctrine of the L'arth, (the religious 
worid) and which now it is in their eyes heresy, madness and folly to 
think of calling in question. These doctrines, however, had many 
secret friends, and worked like leaven, gradually spreading during 
all the time of the years that the third angel continued his sounding. 
At length, after slowly and surely spreading, working like leaven, and 
prevailing, they produced in the earth the religious world of the pro- 
lessors of truth, the effects which are revealed at the sounding of the 
next angel. "And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the 
sun was staittcn, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of 
the stars ; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone 
not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld, and 
heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud 
voice, Wo,wo, wo, to the inhabiters of the earth, by reason of the other 
voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound I 

Such was the effect of this root of bitterness ! such wa3 the dark- 
ness it produced ; such was the great and terrible change it brought 
upon the earth, the religious world. The law, the gospel, and the 
people of God were now in part smitten with darkness. Ever since 
this time, error falsehood and false doctrine have been spreadiug and 
increasing in the earth, till falsehood has come at last to be exalted as 
undoubted truth, and the truth to be cast down, despised and laughed 
at as undoubted falsehood. It is the natural doctrine of human 
nature ; it has gradually brought back the Protestants to the old beast 
in almost everything but the name ; it has naturalized the Truth in 
such a manner as to make what is called the gospel to be merely a 



212 

system of human learning and wisdom, such as may be learned and ac- 
quired at the will of any man if he pleases to study hard, the same as 
any system or learning, or trade of the world ! While falsehood, 
and with it wickedness and crime has increased in the earth with the 
spread and increase of this doctrine, it has also increased in the sea ; 
for, when they who profess to serve God, serve Him not in truth, the 
name of God is blasphemed in the Sea (the world) through them. 
When the Earth departs from the truth, then the Sea casts off all fear 
and rages boldly ; when the gospel of God is darkened in the earth, 
the fear of the law of God is removed from the sea ; when the day is 
smitten the night is likewise ! Before this time the open enemies of 
the truth, of the righteousness and gift of God, had been potentates, 
prelates, and men of the world, not professors, not the Earth but the 
Sea ; men who looked to religion established by worldly authority, for 
power, fortune, or fame; men who really cared not a straw for God, 
or for anything beyond the glory of this world ; who saw the neces- 
sary ruin of all their earthly wordly dominion in the increase of the 
heavenly doctrine. But ever since this time, the enemies of the truth 
have been the Earth itself, even the very same who profess to follow 
the very truth. The new system of Arminius gave them now 
an oppportunity which they delighted in, to declare their enmity 
to the truth, while they still appeared to follow it, and even with 
greater zeal— such is the deceitfulness of sin. Henceforth the doc- 
trine of Christ which in the measure given, had been the universal 
doctrine of the Earth, became gradually odious and contemptible, 
and cast out by the majority of professors ; at the same time, the few 
men left who still held fast to the things which yet remained, greatly 
encouraged and emboldened by their fleshly unrighteous conduct, the 
enemy, the man of the earth, in resisting and fighting against the 
truth, being puffed up with a little knowledge, not built up in love. 
All these things came to pass gradually and unawares; first there was 
only in part a darkening of the sun, the doctrine of God's righteous- 
ness, even Jesus Christ, the Word : it took time before the new 
doctrine could fully exterminate the old truth, as it now at last has 
effectually done in this day. 

When thus death, darkness, and lukewarmness had smitten the 
people and church of Christ, and the earth (the religious world) had 
now chosen wormwood, bitterness and death, rather than the honey 
of truth ;— after it had continued thus a due time, in silence and quiet- 
ness, a day of tribulation w T as at hand which was announced by a cry of 

Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the Earth ! 

When the fifth angel began to sound, then began to arise a new 
set and kind of Christians, who came with a new Christianity, a 
new set of doctrines and practices, and a wonderful show and pro- 
fession of man's piety. There came now a great religious tribula- 
tion and agitation on the earth, a diabolical activity of deceit, wick- 
edness, and religious show and exaltation, under the imposing name 
and appearance of a wonderful reformation zeal and advancement, in 
evangelical piety and religion. It was a tribulation, such as never 
before was upon the Earth; no, nor ever shall be. It is the tribu- 
lation of which Christ spake, after which the sun and moon should 
not give their light (the two witnesses of God being killed as it now 
is this day) and then— (when all is fulfilled, and God hath gathered 
together His people, and established His holy mountain above the tops 
of the mountains) — " then cometh the end." 

A wonderful sect, that is nation of the Earth, (the religious world) 
even an army, now arose, fighting with teeth as of lions against the rem- 
nant of the truth yet on the earth, the truth of God's election of Grace, 
of His everlasting love towards His chosen people. Now began the 



FAITH AND HOPE. 213 

great religious agitation, which has ended in this day in the triumph 
of the beast out of the bottomless pit, by its killing the two 
witnesses. Now arose a people, the beginning of the present 
generation of pious Christians, professing to possess all former truth 
only in more abundant and greater perfection ; a proud, boastful, vain, 
self-conceited, and self-exalted people ; an army of destroyers, who 
have destroyed like locusts all that was green upon the earth, and who 
have now covered the earth (the religious world,) in all its sects, and 
names, with their doctrine. These spiritual warriors, proud fleshly 
men, have gone forth, like horsemen, over the earth, with rattling 
chariots, an incredible bustle and activity, running to and fro in the 
city, — the great religious city of Sodom and Egypt, — running upon the 
wall, climbing up upon the houses, entering in at the windows, like a 
thief, leaping and jumping, as the prophets Naham and Joel described 
them of old ! The Earth, (the religious world,) as the prophet spake, 
quaked before them. The old kihabiters of the Earth, both Catholics 
and Protestants, looked on with fear jealousy and alarm, at the bold- 
ness, the zeal, the energy and progress of this deceitful and deceiving 
beast, which had ascended out of the bottomless pit . at its bustling 
movements, its triumphant revivals, its anniversary parades and exhi- 
bitions, its moneyed institutions and confederacies, among the various 
sects, which all joined with it in one general doctrine of Man, now 
form one great, religious, pious City, having many streets or different 
divisions and names, forming a great Pious Power, called by the Lord 
spiritually the City of Sodom and Egypt ! 

The rise of this army or nation of the Earth, is revealed, and a full 
description given of them, in this ninth Chapter, in a few verses ; r and 
their character was thus revealed and read by men, nearly two thou- 
sand 5 ears ago J for He who described them so minutely, knoweth our 
thoughts afar off! 

" And the Jifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth; 
and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.'''' 

A star which fell from heaven, signifies as before, an eminent per- 
son, who forsook the truth of the heavenly doctrine, of the Everlasting 
Love and Blessing of God : in this case, it was a man of great learn 
ing and wisdom after the flesh, the leader of this nation, or sect of the 
Earth. 

"And he opened the bottomless pit ; and there arose a smoke out. of the pit, as the 
smoke of a great furnace ; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the 
smoke of the pity 

Having the key given to him, even power to work upon the hearts 
of men, he opened the pit which God had kept shut hitherto ; he now 
opened all the flood-gates of the pride, vanity and self-conceit of the 
hearts of ignorant and vulgar men, (even the heart of the Earthly mam 
which is an unfathomable pit of deceit and wickedness,) and he let 
loose the great smoke of the pit. 

This is the Beginning of the Beast out of the bottomless pit, which, 
after constant fighting against the Truth, that "The Lord, He is God,*' 
has at length, in this day, completely triumphed, and enthroned Man, 
sinful Man, above the throne of God! Now the bottomless pit was 
opened : 

" And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earths and unto them was given 
power, as the scorpions of the earth hare power.'' 1 

Out of which smoke of religious vanity and pride, came forth 
preachers of vanity and lies, called locusts, because they destroyed 
the Earth, destroying men by their deadly doctrine ; but they had no 
power to hurt the elect of God ! 

u And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be 
tormented five months : and their tor meat was as the torment of a scorpion, whenke 
£trikexh a mats*? 



214 the pious christian's 

They did not kill men, but only tormented them, stinging them like 
scorpions, working up in them, feelings of torment, and the terrors of 
a guilty conscience, and then causing them to swell ; men were not 
slain by the law, through them, though they talked a great deal about 
feeling convictions for sin, and what hell-deserving sinners they were ; 
yet they were not killed, they had not the knowledge of sin, which is 
by the law, and which is death. Power was given to this sect to torment 
men five months, that is one hundred and fifty years ! 

" And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not Jlnd it ; and shaU desire to 
die, and death shall Jiee Jrom them." 

It was in these days, by this sect, that the doctrine of a religious 
Experience was first set up. Henceforth Faith and Hope, and every- 
thing, all knowledge and all righteousness, has been made to consist 
in having an Experience, in feeling convictions for sin, in feeling that 
you are a hell-deserving sinner ! Henceforth men tried to die ! to suffer, 
that is, to feel death ! henceforth it has been a rage among them to 
outdo each other in telling what dead, wicked, filthy, corrupt, hell-de- 
serving sinners they feel themselves to be ! Thus they feast themselves 
on death, and they, who despise the sweetness and honey of the truth 
of God, fill themselves with gall, bitterness, wormwood and death 
But ! righteous are the judgments of God ! they who boast and imagine 
that they can get life and go to heaven, if they please to do something, 
can not even get death, no ! not even death ! with all their labour and 
trying hard to feel it ! The Lord here reveals how they could not find 
the death they sought, but it fled far from them ! They know not what 
they labour hard to feel ! The terrors of the law, its dreadful sword, 
instead of killing, makes them leap for joy ; the more they feel they 
are hell-deserving sinners, the more they rejoice, for they have got 
"an experience!" instead of being killed, they are happified ! Thus 
they glory in feeling sin, in their shame, instead of being killed, 
ashamed, confounded, abaced and smitten with terror and death, be- 
cause of sin ! The prophet Joel, by the spirit of Christ, spake the same 
thing of them, and showed that, when they try to kill themselves in 
their consciences, by the sword of the law, that is, to feel what bad, 
wicked sinners they are, they can not do it, saying of them, w ' and 
when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded ! " 

u And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses, prepared unto battle ; and on> 
their heads were, as it were crowns like gold, and their 'faces were as thejaces of men. 

A more personal description is next made of them, showing their 
boastful character ; how, after being stung and tormented, so as to» 
feel what sinners they are, then they become swollen bodily and puffed 
up, shouting, "glory, glory," having- on their heads counterfeit crowns 
as if they were the undoubted people of God, crowned with glory ; 
but their crowns are counterfeit, their ecstacy a delusion ; the crowns 
are only " as it were, like gold." Yet such was the completeness of 
their counterfeit, that they appeared to the world, by their fierce 
religious zeal and pious strictness, by their demure looks and apparent 
humility, ever groaning and complaining what sinners they are, and 
by their boasted feelings of wonderful happification, beatification and 
glory, as if they, and they only, are beyond all doubt, the veritable 
children of glory ! It is here revealed how the whole was a show and 
counterfeit of Satan ! With all their boasting of glory, they knew not 
and saw not the Sun of righteousness ! it shone not upon their faces ? 
their faces were as the faces of men ! 

" And they had hair as the hair of women, a-ad their teeth were as the teeth of lions" 

But though their faces were the faces of men, while they gnashed 
with their teeth, fighting zealously like lions against the truth of God's 
everlasting love and his election of grace, (the truth that God hath a 



FAITH AND HOPE, 215 

people, and giveth life to whom He will,) while they thus showed their 
teeth against God, for they had teeth as the teeth of lions, they did not 
took like lions, on the contrary they looked humble, demure and modest, 
and wore their hair long, and smoothed down in front like women ; 
they had hair as the hair of women ! It is well known that in England, 
where they arose, such was their manner of wearing their hair, like 
the hair of women, 

" And they had breastplates-^ as it were breastplates of iron ; and the sound of their 
wings was as the sound oJ~chariots of many Jiorses running to battle.' 1 '' 

A breastplate signifies righteousness. It is here revealed how they 
inculcated a severe, rigid, iron-hearted righteousness, attacking men 
even in all their little comforts and enjoyments ! The noise, bustle, 
and exhibition they made when they met in conference or in camp- 
meetings, is described by the noise of the sound of their wings, 
and the rattling of chariots! they are likened to horses running to 
battle, with such zeal did these religious horsemen go forth to destroy 
the Earth. 

" And they kad tails like unto scorpions , and there ivere stings in their tails j and their 
power was to hurt men Jive months.,' 1 ' 1 

Here it is revealed that they had tails, but no heads, showing how 
they were (in England, where they originated,) men of the baser sort 
and lower classes, they had tails ; ** the prophet that teaches lies, he is 
the tail ;"' but they had no heads ; K the ancient and honourable, he is 
the head ;" and these were not among them ! It is here again repeated, 
that their power to torment men was to last one hundred and fifty 
years ; the end of them is nigh at hand, for they have now existed 
about one hundred and forty years already. 

It is next revealed how they had a king over them, the angel of the 
bottomless pit, the founder of their sect, who ruled them with absolute 
and despotic sway, and whose word is a law to them to this day. This 
was John Wesley, a man learned in Greek and Hebrew, who was a 
destroyer of men by the evil and proud doctrines which he taught, 
puhiing them up with the vain, conceited idea, that if they pleased, 
if they only chose to do some things, they would go to heaven, in spite 
of God, and without his election. Yea, he proudly said, that if it was 
so, that God chose from everlasting whom he would take into heaven, 
M He had any election in the matter, then he was a destroyer of men! 
(thus blaspheming hypothetically with an * if," so that both he and 
his followers can positively deny that he ever thus blasphemed. Such 
is the art and cunning of the serpent !) Thus he, a great destroyer of 
men, called God a destroyer, saying that the few men left in his day 
who preached the truth of God made God a destroyer of men, by the 
true and holy doctrine which they taught, though in weakness and 
sackcloth. Thus the servants of the devil being accusers, that is 
devils, called Christ, when he was in the flesh, a devil. This man, the 
king over them, who called God a destroyer, had been named of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, who saw and knew his thoughts, ages and ages 
before he was born, the destroyer! The name was given him 
both in Greek and in Hebrew, for he was both a Greek and a Hebrew 
scholar. It is thus revealed : 

" And they had a king over them which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose 
name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek, tongue hath his name 
Apollyon," which name signifies Destro3'er. 

a Righteous art thou, O God. and just art thy judgments ! Who 
would not fear thee, O king of kings !" 

All these things the Lord Jesus Christ revealed long before they 
came to pass, as they have now come to pass in these days, describing 
minute particulars concerning Antichrist, — even how demurely they 
combed down their hair— -as David by his spirit described also minute 



216 THE pious christian's 

particulars of the same unimportant character, concerning Christ' 
even describing the little circumstance of the common soldiers throw- 
ing dice for his clothes, as he was suffering on the cross, which also is 
what the Pious Christians do now in this day, in spirit, as they 'did 
bodily, towards Him whom they have crucified afresh. For while in 
mocking, and without truth in their hearts, they call Him King and 
Saviour, they make it a chance, an accident, and, as it were, toss up 
who shall be saved, appropriating to themselves His garments, while 
they crucify Him. They do this, making the salvation of God and th? 
gift of righteousness by Jesus Christ to depend upon some present 
accident and contingency, some trifling, momentary deeds or feelings of 
profane and impure men and women ! 

Three Woes were pronounced ; one of them is passed, there arejtwo 

more to come. When the Sixth Angel sounded (it is now 

Bounding, and has not yet finished ; when the Seventh Angel shall 
begin to sound, the Mystery of God shall be finished, as He hath de- 
clared to His Servants, the Prophets,) when the Sixth Angel 

sounded, then began the Woe and tribulation, the religious excitement 
and active campaign of the beast out of the bottomless pit, in another 
part of the world, even here in America. 

41 And the Sixth Angel sounded, and 1 heard a voice from the four horns of the golden 
altar which is before God, 

" Saving to the Sixth Angel which had the wwnpet, Loose the four angels which are 
bound in the great river Euphrates 

" And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and 
a month, and a year for to slay the third part of men." 

The great river Euphrates is that great and fertile river or people, 
called America. The four angels signify the whole number (or square) 
of messengers, or angels of religious fury and zeal, which were now 
let loose for an appointed time, having been bound and restrained in 
America, hitherto. 

"And thus 1 saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them , having breast- 
plates of fire, and of jacinth and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the 
heads of lions ; and out of their mouths issued Jire, and smoke, und brimstone." 

The spiritual horsemen, the pious warriors are here described, who 
now went forth in immense numbers, (God had numbered and knew 
them all ) They went forth with pious zeal, on the length and breadth 
of the land, killing men, preaching hell -fire and brimstone, which they 
call the Gospel ! lm Out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and 
brimstone !" Their breast-plates, that is the different sorts and quali- 
ties of righteousness which they inculcated, are here described, some 
being better and of a finer sort than others, some being nothing but 
brimstone-righteousness. Only three kinds of breast-plates are now 
mentioned, inasmuch as the iron-righteousness of the other one ha* 
been mentioned already before. 

" By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and 
by the brimstone which issued out of their mouths. 

" For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto 
serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.' 1 '' 

There were four of them, but only by three were men killed in their 
consciences ; for the Methodists, who are of the four, do not kill, (as il 
is revealed before,) but only torment and sting men, and then after- 
wards puff them up, or happify them, as they speak. In England, 
where the beast from the pit first arose, it is shown they had no heads^ 
the ancient and honorable were not among them ; they only had tails : 
but here in America it is expressly said they have heads, and it is so ; 
for here, in this great river Euphrates, the ancient and honourable, 
such as Members of Congress and others, (heads,) all join in the reli- 
gious pious movements of the beast, presiding at their Meetings, 



FAITH AND HOPE. 2 If 

Anniversaries, and other Assemblies, when the chariots rattle and the 
horses snort, as the prophet Jeremiah has described them! 

All these religious horsemen and spiritual warriors now went forth 
with the fury and valour of lions, doing reiigious wonders, getting up 
revivals, killing men in their consciences, stinging and puffing them 
up, working upon them to get religion, to fear and become pious! to 
fear fire and brimstone, not to fear God ! to get religion and feelings, 
not to do righteousness ! 

" And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of 
the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold o»<4 3U~ 
oer, and brass and stone, and oj wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor walki 

" Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their forni- 
cation, nor of their thefts. 

Here is plainly shown the fruit of all their fleshly zeal, the terrible 
consummation of iniquity and crime which in this day they have 
brought to pass upon the earth among men, by their doctrines, which 
have been laid open and set in order before' their eyes in this book. 
This, as here revealed, is the end of it all! this is the Millenium they 
have promised and produced ! a day of violence and crime, of wanton- 
ness, recklessness, covetousness, pride and licentiousness! a universal 
demoralization, corruption and up-rooting of society ! a day of gross 
darkness, in which men believe in all sorts of sorcery, witchcraft, folly 
and delusion, in luck, fortune, accident, mesmerism, fortune-telling, 
clairvoyance, religious mechanism, knockings, and all the schemes 
and delusions of the devil, trusting in everything and anything rather 
than in God! yet men think they believe in God, while thus they wor- 
ship devils ; it is a frightful consummation ; a day in which cupidity, 
vain-glory, violence, and disobedience to authority is a glory, and men 
are righteous, yea, virtuous and going to heaven, if they only profess 
to drink nothing but water, joining the beast in some of his ways, 
taking his mark and the number of his name. Such is the righteous- 
ness they have brought to pass by teaching man's personal piety, and 
his doing pious wonders, rather than to have the righteousness which 
is by faith, the doing of Jesus Christ. Thus the Lord described, ages 
ago, this evil day and time, the impenitence, sorceries, idolatries pro- 
duced by Satan working deceitfully in the hearts of men against Christ ! 
While some are killed and tormented before their time, the rest do the 
works of their own hands, and trust for happiness, that is, blessing, in 
sorceries, witchcraft, and devils, in gold and silver, and brass, and stone 
and wood, property of all kinds, goods which cannot bless, nor give 
peace to the conscience. They repent not, and turn not away from 
doing evil, by all the fire and brimstone preached to them ; they commit 
malice, hatred, slandering, back-biting, murders, fornication and thefts, 
not repenting nor turning from these deeds by all the religious services 
they pursue ; for fire and brimstone, as it is here plainly revealed, pro- 
duce no repentance ! Such is the consummation they have brought 
to pass ! 

It has never been so before in all Christendom, as it is now in this 
day ! The two witnesses which testify only righteousness, the Law., 
that it must be done, the Gospel, that Christ does it, were never before 
in all the 1260 years, utterly cast down and slain, as they now are. 
Thus when Satan fought violently against the Truth, he could not pre- 
vail; but he has prevailed by deceit, looking "like a lamb? fighting 
against God and His Christ, in the very name of God and of Christ. 

Thus it has happened with the few among the Christians who once 
had the truth according to the measure of the gift, and who professed 
to obey it. While they had not totally forsaken and overthrown the 
law of righteousness, they were the salt of the Earth ; but now the day 
is come when the best things are the worst ; when they who showed 
19 



218 THE pious christian's 

the greatest zeal against abominations and lies, have set up the great- 
est of all abominations, turning the truth of God into a lie, by then- 
counterfeit, their scheme of vital piety and experimental religion ! 
Satan, in his servants, has taken the houses of God into his possession, 
and patronised the truth, that he might pervert and destroy it ! Having 
gained the ascendancy, he is going about with great pretended zeal for 
one single virtue of the belly, to set aside the true righteousness, the 
object of his former zeal and patronage. He now says in effect, 
" Away with all your Gospel ; there is not sobriety enough in it; first 
make men sober, set up the Temperance cause first ; let all righteousness 
consist in not getting drunk /" If God permitted this time to con- 
tinue, the Truth would soon be clean blotted out, and forgotten for- 
ever on the earth among men. Satan has in this day produced such 
a consummation of desolation, idolatry and crime, that now Atheism 
and philosophy triumph openly over Christianity and the Christian 
religion. Christian pride and covetousness have reduced the commu- 
nities of Christian people to such a condition of pauperism and crime, 
that Atheism cries Shame ! and the Christians, not believing in fact in 
their own system, are joined with the Sea, (the world and its "phi- 
losophy,) in devising plans and schemes to ameliorate the social mise- 
>f the Christian world, and remedy the effects of Christian wicked- 
For they know not, they believe not the law which brings this 
upon them by their own works ; also to them there is no God, 
ifttl and gracious, to remove the curse from those who put their 
; n Him, giving them the Righteousness which brings peace and 
blessing ; therefore t ;>ey resort to Atheism and Philosophy, to improve 
their Christianity ! They look to strange gods to save them from the 
ruin manifest upon them ! They laugh at the very thought of receiv- 
ing Jesus Christ to come unto them and be in them, and yet they look 
to Gods within them, to save them, even to the "principle of virtue," 
the ft principle of religion," or the " principle of charity," or any god 
of their own, some inward light or imagination, or virtue of man, to 
be in them to bless them, doing wonders of good ; and they think to 
produce these gods within themselves, by education and " Christian 
effort ;" they who mock at God and His Christ, hope in sanctified human 
nature to do something for them and bless them ! By giving person- 
ality and a name to imaginations, even to man's feelings and virtues, 
they set up gods, and have as many gods as the ancient Pagans ; they 
believe in Christ as Tiberius did,' who, being piously disposed, pro- 
posed to the Senate of Rome, to enrol his name with and among the 
names of the gods. They do the same ; but while they talk of the 
" dear Redeemer," they only honour their own gods, trusting in money, 
M their regenerate selves, or to some virtue, power, principle, or in- 
ward feeling, some imaginary creature and god within them. All 
tkese imaginations, names, principles and inward lights, feelings, or 
powers, in which they trust to do and to save, are man, or some feel- 
ing, or some virtue of man ; that is, they are the beast, or his very 
image ! It is a consummation by which Christianity has become a 
refined, genteel, and disguised system of idolatry, wickedness and 
witchcraft, a rank denial of, and Apostacy from the true and living 
God I Thus has Satan brought Atheism and Idolatry to triumph 
among men over Christianity ; for they hope in their philosophy, their 
efforts, their schemes, their inward principles to make them happy, 
that i^, blessed ; they have no hope in God ; God is out of the ques- 
tion His Law, the immutable law, first righteousness and then 
blessing, is perfectly laughable to them all ; going to church and then 
going to heaven is ali their law, or doing the best you can, that is, 
just what vou please, and all will be well ! Never was there such a 



FAITH AND HOPE. 219 

time among men, of impudence and insolence towards the God of 
heaven, wherein men, piously exalted above God, make a sham law 
for themselves, and are going to heaven in utter contempt of God's law 
and will ! The adversary has succeeded in bringing about this day of 
his triumph, not as an enemy, but as a professed attached lover and 
friend ! " It was not an enemy," saith the Lord Jesus Christ in David, 
" but THO 17." It is the Son of perdition ! The sword, the prisons, 
the fire and faggot of the first beast, never could accomplish what the 
beast out of the unfathomable pit of the earthly heart of the pious man, 
pretending to preach Christ, has now in this day at length accom- 
plished ! 

They encourage themselves in rejecting- the truth, because it is so 
severe upon them, and so they say it is not charity ! As Balaam did, 
they despise the voice they hear, who, if he had hearkened and turned 
back would have saved his life ; (they who are of God will hear, by 
whatever creature He may be pleased to speak.) It is charity to set 
in order these detestable abominations, that they who are of God, and 
are deceived by them, may hearken and consider, that they be not 
torn in pieces. It is charity to " make Israel know his abominations^ 1 
that he may hate and forsake crime, for their system and doctrine is 
crime. It is criminal to misrepresent men, to attribute to them things 
they have not said, to falsify what they have said, to forge lies of them, 
to say they have spoken the reverse of what they have spoken ! This 
is a crime. How much more criminal is it to deny God's words ; to 
tell lies of Him ; to say that He is not the Creator of His people, of 
them who hearken to His voice, whom He will bless ; to say that He 
does not give for nothing, He sells ! to attribute to Him the austere 
churlishness of wicked man ! It is crime and felony to counterfeit an 
earthlydocument or coin ; howmuch greater it is to set up the counter- 
feit of man's wisuom, instead of God's ! It is charity to show forth 
these detestable abominations which destroy men, which fill them 
with malice and religious hatred, with agony, distress and madness, 
which have brought about this day of the consummation of desola- 
tion. It is written for their sakes, who are of the truth, who will hear : 
that they may be cleansed from all these abominations, and be filled 
with blessing, being purified and made a holy habitation of God. For 
God will now cleanse His people, His sanctuary, by the word of Kis 
mouth, and dwell in them. " There shall no strange god be in them.'' 
The wisdom and mercy of God has suffered the Abomination of the two 
Beasts to prevail so long. This salvation from the flesh, which is sin 
and iniquity, in which we are born and shapen, is an unspeakable 
gift. God hath now taught us this fact by the teaching of ages ; He 
will have us to know that to be brought out of this pit and dark 
prison of sin, ignorance and enmity, is His doing, and His mercy. If 
He had always given to the redeemed from among men, on whom it is 
His good pleasure to have mercy, to enter at once upon the Blessing and 
the Gift, without remaining, (many of them for ages.) in the flesh and 
under the law, travailing in pain, we should not have known the fact, 

that, IT IS NOT A MATTER OF COURSE THAT WE ARE SAVED AND BLES- 
SED ! Now we know that the gift of Eternal Life, (even to believe in 
His name and receive Him whom he hath sent, His Word, to come 
unto us,) is not by our doing something ; God forbid ! 

God took HIM away in His wrath, and left His people so long in 
desolation, not only because of their sins, but also in His mercy to 
generations to come, whom it was His purpose to save and bless. 
Therefore^ Christ has waited till His enemies were made His footstool, 
till this time, when the people should be born who were to tarry till 
HE came. For if instead of scattering His people, and suffering the 



220 the pious christian's 

Holy City to be trodden under foot by the beast, during all this time, 
God had built up His nation on the earth, and established His holy 
mountain above the mountains of men, then the nations of the heathen, 
the world of men who love wrong, and will do it, who hate right, and 
will not submit to it, would have been gathered together from all the 
world, (as they will be gathered together,) to destroy the people 
beloved of God, a people serving Him in righteousness, loving right, 
hating wrong, doing evil to no one. Then must the end have come in 
their destruction, before the time, even before we who shall believe, 
had been saved. For thus the end will come, a destruction brought 
upon men by their own works, their hatred of righteousness, and" 
violence against the righteous. Therefore that we might be blessed, 
and gathered together with all His holy people, God hath suffered 
His city and nation to be overcome, trodden under foot, and not built 
up in one, and hath given power to the beast to prevail, and scatter 
the power of the holy people ! 

The blessing now to come on the earth, before the end cometh. 

It has happened over again in these latter days with the Pious Chris- 
tians, as it happened before in Judea. The same generation of pious, 
rigid, austere men, the same enemies of the Christ, the righteousness 
of God, have, as before, crucified afresh the Lord of Glory, and put 
Him to an open shame ; it is the same people and generation which 
is not passed away, as the Lord showed it should not. As great 
blessing followed the triumph of the enemy, after that day, (when 
God confirmed His covenant of everlasting righteousness with many 
for a week of 700 years,) so now God will cause the triumph of the 
enemy to be for salvation and blessing to his people, of all nations and 
tongues. Instead of a beast " like a lamb," the true lamb will stand on 
Mount Zion. The Word will be fulfilled ; u And it shall come to pass 
in the last days, saith the Lord, that the mountain of the Lord's House 
shall be established above the tops of the mountains, and all nations shall 
flow unto it.'''' There will be righteousness and blessing in the moun- 
tain of the Lord's house, for God, in Jesus Christ, will be in the midst 
of His holy people ; M the name of the city shall be, the lord is there," 
saith the Prophet. The earth will not be smitten with a curse, because 
of that people ! 

God hath prepared a people who will hear His voice ; he will turn 
the hearts of the children to the hearts of the fathers; they shall 
remember His law of righteousness, to do it, receiving Jesus Christ to 
be all righteousness within them ! If it were not so, the Earth would 
now be smitten with a curse. 

The truth is foolishness to man ; yea, madness and folly. Paul con- 
fessed it, that Jesus Christ was come in him, saying, "JVo£ /, but 
Christ liveth in me ;" and he was a man of sound mind, who worked 
with his own hands for his daily bread. The fathers confessed it, 
saying, " God is in the generation of the righteous." John did no 
miracles, he foretold not things which were to come to pass, but what 
he spake of Jesus, the Christ, the Lord from heaven, was true. The 
Lord testifies His truth and doctrine to His elect, the churches, from 
heaven, restoring the things which the Pious Christians have, in this 
day, confused and confounded. The wise shall understand. 

"I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these 
things in the churches. i am the root and the offspring of 
David, and the bright and morning star." 

He which testifieth these things saith, "Surely^ I comb 
quickly." "Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus." 



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